CENSERS    AND    INCENSE    OF    MEXICO 
AND  CENTRAL  AMERICA 


BY 

WALTER  HOUGH 

Curator  of  Ethnology,  United  States  National  Museum 


No.  1887. — From  the  Proceedings  of  the  United  States  National  Museum, 
Vol.  42,  pages  109-137,  with  Plates  3-14 

Published  April  17,  1912 


Washington 

Government   Printing  Office 
1912 


CENSERS    AND    INCENSE    OF    MEXICO 
AND  CENTRAL  AMERICA 


BY 

WALTER  HOUGH 

Curator  of  Ethnology,  United  States  National  Muaeum 


No.  1887. — From  the  Proceedings  of  the  United  States  National  Museum, 
Vol.  42,  pages  109-137,  with  Plates  3-14 

Published  April  17,  1912 


Washington 

Government  Printing  Office 
1912 


CENSERS  AND  INCENSE  OF  MEXICO  AND  CENTRAL 

AMERICA. 


By  Walter  Hough, 

Curator  of  Ethnology ,  United  States  National  Museum. 


INTRODUCTION. 

During  the  course  of  investigation  on  the  utilization  of  fire  the 
attention  of  the  writer  was  drawn  to  several  aboriginal  American 
incense  burners  in  the  collection  of  the  United  States  National 
Museum,  and  as  these  objects  are  rare  and  have  never  been  discussed 
under  one  title,  it  was  thought  desirable  to  describe  them,  together 
with  such  American  material  as  was  procurable.  Pere  Lafitau 
remarks  that  "the  altars  of  primitive  times  were  not  different  from 
the  ordinary  house  fire"  and  compares  the  portable  altar  or  pyranon 
of  the  Greeks  with  the  calumet  of  the  Indians.1  The  uncivilized 
tribes  of  America  are  still  in  the  rudiments  of  the  incense  cult,  their 
practices  being  confined  mainly  to  oblations  to  fire,  in  the  nature  of 
individual  acts  or  occasionally  appearing  as  a  single  rite  in  cere- 
monies. For  tins  reason  the  cult  apparatus  is  very  simple,  like  the 
pipe  or  analogous  smoke-producing  inventions,  or  the  simple  fire- 
place. 

Tins  paper  therefore  concerns  itself  with  the  apparatus  found  prin- 
cipally in  Mexico  and  Central  America,  where  several  types  occur, 
falling  under  the  following  classification,  which  also  may  be  found 
applicable  to  the  general  subject. 

CLASSIFICATION  OF  CENSERS. 
I.  Communal  or  General. 

1.    STATIONARY. 

(a)  Tribal,  society,  and  family  fireplaces,  fire  boxes,  and  fire  altars. 

Several  ideas  are  involved  in  this  division,  such  as  preservation 
and  renewal  of  fire  for  the  health  and  well-being  of  the  larger  and 
smaller  social  units  or  religious  organizations,  as  well  as  the  beings 
themselves;  sacrifice  to  fire  by  various  oblations,  with  the  idea  of 

1  Moeurs  des  sauvages  amerieains,  vol.  1,  pp.  159  and  167,  Paris,  1724. 

Proceedings  U.  S.  National  Museum,  Vol.  42— No.  1887. 

109 


110  PROCEEDIXOS  OF  THE  XATIOXAL  MUSEUM.  vol.42. 

feeding,  attracting,  appeasing,  or  beseeching  the  unseen  beings. 
These  and  other  unformulated  acts  associated  with  fire  have  been 
observed  throughout  the  world  among  peoples  of  different  degrees 
of  culture. 

(b)  Great  stone  braziers,  generally  of  hourglass  shape,  erected  on 

masonry  bases  before  temples  or  shrines.     (Mexico.) 
Stone  basins   borne  by   animal  or  human  figures  placed  at 

shrines    or    sacred   locations.      (Chiapas,  Yucatan,  Mexico; 

Costa  Rica;  Honduras;  and  Guatemala.) 
Circular  stones  on  short  pediments  or  caryatides;  "altars"  of 

shrines,  in  temples.     (Yucatan  and  Honduras.) 

(c)  Large   pottery   vessels   of   hourglass   shape   ornamented   with 

masks,  bands,  knots,  knobs,  and  spurs,  and  painted  in  colors. 

Placed  as  the  stone  braziers  before  temples  or  at  shrines. 

Essentially  Nahuatl.     (Nahuatl   Mexico;  Guatemala;   Costa 

Rica.) 
II.  Special. 

1.    PORTABLE. 

(a)  Braziers  of  small  size  used  in  dwellings.     Of  various  forms. 

(Mexico.) 

(b)  Tripod  censers  consisting  of  a  bowl  mounted  on  three  splayed 

feet  preserving  in  general  the  hourglass  form.  Set  on  the 
ground.     (Southern  Mexico;  Costa  Rica.) 

(c)  Bowl  censers,  bearing  a  mask  and  other  rudiments  of  human 

or  animal  forms,  as  in  the  monolithic  braziers.  (See  I,  b) 
(Chiapas  and  Yucatan,  Mexico;  Guatemala;  Costa  Rica.) 

2.    GESTURE    CENSERS. 

(a)  Flaring  bowl  with  rudimentary  handle  and  spurs  representing 

other  feet  of  tripod.     (Oaxaca,  Mexico.) 

(b)  Openwork  pottery  tripod  vessel,  one  leg  of  which  is  extended 

to  form  a  handle.  Rattle  feet.  (Zapotec  area,  southern 
Mexico.) 

(c)  Spoon    with    truncated   handle.     Ventilation    holes    in    bowl. 

Rude.     (Zapotec  area,  southern  Mexico.) 
Small   spoons   with   conventional   animal  handle.     (Southern 
Mexico;  Costa  Rica.) 

(d)  Incense  ladle  consisting  of  a  bowl  ventilated  with  openwork 

pattern  and  having  a  long,  hollow  handle  containing  rattles 
and  terminating  in  a  serpent  or  other  head.  Nahuatl  form. 
(Central  Mexico.) 

(e)  Tubular  pipes  for  incensing  the  esoteric  beings  and  cardinal 

points.     Pipes  in  general  cult  uses.     (Ancient  and  modern 
Pueblos  and  other  Indians,  also  northern  Mexico  and  other 
Mexican  localities.) 
(/)    Cigarettes.     (Mexico  and  ancient  Pueblos.) 


no.  1887.    CENSERS  AND  INCENSE  OF  MIDDLE  AMERICA— HOUGH.    Ill 

3.    SWINGING    CENSERS. 

(a)  Censers     introduced     from     Europe.      Accultural.      (Chiapas 

specimen.) 

I.  Communal  or  General. 

1.    STATIONARY. 

(b)  The  great  masonry  braziers  located  before  shrines  about  the 
teocallis.  and  at  various  other  sacrificial  spots  where  perpetual  fires 
were  maintained  and  offerings  consumed  were  not  strictly  incense 
burners,  though  so  treated  at  times.1  Usually  upon  them  living 
victims  were  immolated  and  it  was  the  custom  to  throw  into  the 
brazier  fire  the  ashes  and  unconsumed  incense  from  the  portable 
censers  together  with  the  paraphernalia  and  offerings  which  had 
been  employed  in  ceremonies.  The  brazier  was  the  source  from 
which  live  coals  were  taken  to  ignite  the  incense  in  the  hand  censers. 

The  brazier  appears  to  be  a  perpetuation  of  the  primitive  com- 
munal fire,  and  the  Nahuatl  name  by  which  such  braziers  were 
called,  tlexictli,  "fire  navel,"  connotes  an  idea  relating  to  birth  and 
the  underworld  like  the  Ilopi  sipapu.  In  describing  the  ceremony  of 
kindling  new  fire  on  the  Hill  of  the  Star  in  the  valley  of  Mexico, 
Sahagun  mentions  the  brazier:  "The  inhabitants  of  Mexico,  having 
arrived  home  with  their  torches  lighted,  carried  them  at  once  to  the 
temple  of  Uitzilopochtli  and  proceeded  to  place  the  fire,  with  much 
copal  incense,  on  the  great  brazier  of  masonry  elevated  before  the 
idol."  2  He  also  states  that  "they  burned  much  night  and  day  in 
the  courts  of  the  temples  on  the  elevated  fireplaces  which  they  had 
made  for  that  purpose."  3 

Again  he  speaks  (p.  101)  of  a  round  hearth  set  in  the  midst  of  the 
court  where  it  was  elevated  two  spans  above  the  surface  and  to 
which  celebrants  carried  for  deposit  the  ashes  and  coals  from  the 
censers. 

Another  form  of  brazier,  described  briefly  by  Sahagun,  was  a  stone 
basin  encased  in  pine  wood  in  which  the  flimsy  ornaments  and  the 
mantas  which  had  been  worn  by  celebrants  were  burnt.  Its  name, 
quauxicalli,  is  interpreted  "wood  vase";  it  was  situated  at  the  foot 
of  the  teocalli,  while  the  great  brazier  in  which  victims  were  burned 
stood  on  the  apex  platform. 

There  is  in  the  United  States  National  Museum  a  cylindrical  block 
of  hard  eruptive  rock  having  a  rectangular  shallow  cavity  9  inches 

1  It  is  said  that  there  were  000  braziers  of  stone,  some  round  and  some  square,  about  the  great  temple 
compound  of  Mexico.  Bancroft,  Native  Races,  vol.  2,  p.  584,  New  York,  1875,  citing  the  Motolina  Historia 
de  los  Indios  de  la  Nueva  Espafia  in  Icazbalceta,  Col.  de  Doc,  vol.  1,  p.  05.  (Since  published  by  Pimental, 
Mexico,  1903.)  Bancroft ,  Native  Races,  vol.  2,  p.  507,  citing  Veytia,  Hist.  Antigua  de  Mejico,  vol.  3,  p.  319, 
states  that  the  streets  of  Mexico  were  lighted  with  braziers  tended  by  the  patrol. 

2  Historia  universal  de  la  Neuva  Espafia,  by  Bernardino  de  Sahagun,  translated  by  Jourdanet  et 
Simeon.    G.  Masson,  l'aris,  1880,  p.  491. 

» Sahagun,  work  cited,  p.  186. 


112 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  NATIONAL   MUSEUM. 


vol.  42. 


square  cut  in  the  upper  surface  which  shows  erosion  as  by  fire,  and 
it  is  thought  that  the  specimen  is  a  brazier  such  as  Sahagun  de- 
scribes. A  glyph  resembling  a  conch  shell  is  repeated  around  the 
periphery,  between  the  upper  and  lower  bordering  bands,  which  are 
decorated  with  a  textile  design  representing  a  braided  band.  The 
brazier  is  from  Mexico  and  was  collected  by  W.  W.  Blake.  Diame- 
ter, 15 J  inches;  height,  10 
inches.  (Ace.  17619,  Orig. 
No.  126.)    (PI.  3  a.) 

A  perfect  example  of  the 
ancient  stone  brazier  (fig.  1) 
was  brought  to  light  a  few 
years  ago  during  the  exca- 
vations by  the  Mexican  Gov- 
ernment at  Teotihuacan.1  It 
was  found  on  the  upper  hori- 
zontal plane  of  the  central 
three-story  temple  at  the  base 
of  the  great  Pyramid  of  the 
Sun  and  consists  of  a  mono- 
lithic sculpture  of  hourglass 
shape  set  on  a  base  of  three 
courses  of  squared  stone. 
With  it  were  found  two  sculp- 
tured tablets  and  two  dados. 
The  brazier  bears  around  the 
middle  a  band  terminating 
on  opposite  sides  in  a  com- 
plicated knot  which  hangs 
down  to  the  base,  the  lappets 
below  the  tie  corresponding 
to  the  four  ends  of  the  band. 
The  knots  bear  signs  con- 
sisting of  disks,  bars,  and  a  figure  8,  like  the  twisted  bread  oiYering 
made  to  Ciuapipiltin,2  the  signs  differing  slightly  on  the  two  knots. 
(Fig.  1,  a,  b.)  The  tablets  and  dados  are  stated  to  bear  a  like 
symbolism.  The  form  of  the  brazier  described  appears  to  be  quite 
constant  in  the  Xahuatl  area  and  was  carried  wherever  that  influence 
went.  The  conception  would  seem  to  be  that  of  the  human  form, 
which  is  more  apparent  in  the  pottery  vessels  of  this  class,  to  be  noted 
later,  offering  more  latitude  to  the  sculptor  than  hard  stone. 

A  specimen  in  form  of  an  hourglass,  of  greenstone,  having  a  band 
of  cords  around  the  middle  and  animal  heads  projecting  on  opposite 


Fig.  1.— Monolithic  brazier,  Teotihuacan. 
(b),  Designs  on  sculptured  knots. 


(a)  AND 


1  Batres,  Teotihuacan.    Mexico,  1900,  p.  25. 


2  Sahagun,  work  cited,  p.  20. 


no.  1887.    CENSERS  AND  INCENSE  OF  MIDDLE  AMERICA— HOUGB.    113 


sides  has  the  appearance  of  the  Nahuatl  type  of  brazier  and  may  be 
assigned  to  that  class.  It  comes  from  Costa  Rica  and  was  collected 
by  C.  N.  Riotte  in  1866.  Diameter,  10£  inches;  height,  11  inches. 
(Cat.  No.  2347,  U.S.N.M.)     (Fig.  2.) 

The  stone  basins  borne  by  human  or  animal  figures  are  mainly  of 
the  brazier  class  and  represent  this  form  among  non-Nahuatl  peoples. 
They  are  generally  found  south  of  the  Nahuatl  area  and  extend  to 
Ecuador.  The  best  known  figures  of  this  class  are  the  specimen  from 
Santa  Lucia,  Cozumalhuapa,  Guatemala  (pi.  3  b),  in  the  Royal  Mu- 
seum of  Berlin  (see  Catalogue  Guide  for  1904;  Georg  Reimer,  Berlin), 
and  the  stone  basin  near  Cuernavaca,  Mexico. 

A  large  monolithic  sculpture  in  basalt  representing  two  clasped 
human  beings,  the  recumbent  figure  bearing  a  basin  of  ovate  outline 
over  the  belly,  exists  in  the  United 
States  National  Museum.  It  is  of 
heavy  black  basalt  and  comes  from 
Costa  Rica.  (PL  3  c.1)  The  relation 
of  this  sculpture  to  several  recumbent 
figures  found  in  Mexico,  the  most  cele- 
brated being  known  as  Chac-Mool,  and 
others  questionably  spoken  of  as  pulque 
gods,  is  quite  close,  and  taken  in  con- 
nection with  the  fire  navel  idea  (p.  Ill), 
the  making  of  new  fire  on  the  belly  of 
a  victim,  and  the  beliefs  concerning  fire, 
generation,  and  life,  presents  an  inter- 
esting suggestion.  In  some  cases  basins 
held  in  the  hands  of  stone  figures  have 
evidently  been  used  for  the  burning  of 
incense.  In  one  of  these  specimens,  about  3  feet  high,  found  at 
Copan,  Honduras,  the  basin  is  held  up  on  a  level  with  the  chin  of 
the  idol.  (PI.  4.)  This  form  appears  to  be  related  developmentally 
to  the  pottery  bowl  with  the  head  on  one  side;  it  is  discussed  by 
Dr.  Eduard  Seler  in  Bulletin  28,  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology, 
Washington,  1904,  pages  84-85. 

Dupaix  figures  an  image  of  granite  12  inches  in  height  representing 
a  seated  man  with  crossed  legs  and  arms  from  Zachila,  10  to  12  miles 
south  of  Oaxaca.  The  sash  about  the  loins  of  this  figure  has  the  knot 
at  the  back.     Another  from  this  locality  has  a  hollow  in  the  top  of 

1  Brazier.  Basaltic  rock,  sculptured  in  the  form  of  two  clasped  figures,  the  recumbent  one  bearing  a 
basin  held  in  the  hands.  The  breasts  hang  over  the  edge  of  the  basin.  The  head  of  this  figure  has  been 
broken  away,  and  the  whole  surface  of  the  object  is  much  worn  by  weather.  It  measures  33  inches  long, 
16  inches  high,  and  19  inches  wide  at  the  greatest  projections.  Costa  Rica.  Collector  unknown.  (Cat. 
No.  179120,  U.S.N.M.) 

20441°— Proc .  N .  M.  vol  .42—12 8 


Fig.  2.— Brazier  of  hourglass  form, 
Costa  Rica.  Collected  by  C.  N. 
Riotte. 


114  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  NATIONAL  MUSEUM.  vol.42. 

the  head  and  seems,  like  many  others  from  this  region,  to  be  a  vase 
or  torch  bearer.1 

At  Teotihuacan  braziers  were  recently  found  representing  a  human 
figure  bending  forward  with  hands  on  the  ground  and  bearing  a  basin 
on  the  back.  The  specimen  shown  is  in  the  Museo  Nacional  de 
Mexico.     The  material  is  andesite,  of  light  color.     (PL  4.) 

The  George  G.  Heye  expedition  has  recently  discovered  in  Ecuador 
an  old  form  of  monolithic  censer  consisting  of  a  seated  figure  with 
hands  raised  bearing  a  bowl  in  which  there  still  remains  half-burned 
incense. 

The  "sacrificial  stone"  of  Mexico,  which  has  a  cavity  in  the  middle 
from  which  leads  a  gutter  passing  over  the  flat  surface  and  down  the 
side,  obviously  worked  out  since  the  completion  of  the  relief  decora- 
tion, appears  to  have  had  a  secondary  use  as  a  brazier.  The  function 
of  the  trough  would  be  to  facilitate  drawing  out  the  ashes,  which,  as 
Sahagun  states,  were  carefully  preserved  for  deposit  in  a  place  set 
apart  for  the  purpose,  and  it  is  obvious  that  the  thorough  removal  of 
every  particle  of  the  ashes  could  not  well  be  accomplished  over  the 
rough,  sculptured  surface  of  the  stone.  The  following  references  to 
Sahagun  describe  the  care  with  which  ashes  were  preserved: 

^'hen  they  had  finished  the  incensing  they  went  to  deposit  the  ashes  in  a  round 
hearth  called  tlexictli  (fire  navel),  which  was  placed  in  the  midst  of  the  court  where 
it  was  elevated  two  spans  above  the  surface.2 

This  having  been  done,  the  ashes  and  the  objects  which  had  been  employed  in  the 
service  of  the  gods  were  carried  to  the  oratories  called  ayauhcalco  (in  the  house  of  fogs 
or  vapors) . 

(These  oratories,  also  called  ayauhcalli,  were  ordinarily  placed  on 
the  banks  of  water  courses.3) 

When  the  aurora  appeared  and  when  one  could  see  the  morning  star  they  interred 
the  ashes  belonging  to  the  offering,  likewise  the  flowers,  the  reeds  where  they  burnt 
the  perfumes,  in  the  belief  that  these  objects  should  not  be  seen  by  anyone  addicted 
to  vices  as  would  be  a  man  living  in  concubinage,  an  adulterer,  a  gambler  or  a  drunk- 
ard; for  they  held  all  that  kind  as  blemished  and  they  forbid  that  they  should  see 
the  interring  of  the  ashes  of  the  sacrifice.  After  they  had  put  them  in  the  ground, 
they  began  to  sing  and  dance  to  the  sound  of  the  tambour  and  the  teponaztli.  4 

A  number  of  altars  have  been  discovered  in  Mexico  and  Central 
America,  especially  by  the  field  parties  sent  out  by  the  Peabodv 
Museum.  These  are  apparently  not  fire  altars  or  censers,  but  the 
altar  block  of  Stela  M  in  the  hieroglyphic  stairway  of  Copan5  in- 
corporated a  figure  (snake)  as  in  the  animal  and  mask  vases  like 
those  of  the  Lacandones,  for  example,6  figured  by  Maler  and  repro- 

1  Dupalx  in  Kingsborough,  Mexican  Antiquities,  vol.  4,  pi.  43. 

'  Sahagun,  work  cited,  p.  101. 

•  Translator's  note,  Sahagun,  work  cited,  p.  74. 

4  Sahagun,  work  cited,  p.  570. 

1  Mem.  Peabody  Mus.,  vol.  l,  No.  0,  pi.  16. 

•Idem,  vol.  2,  No.  1,  p.  28. 


no.  1887.    CENSERS  AND  INCENSE  OF  MIDDLE  AMERICA— HOUGH.   115 

duced  in  Tozzer's  report.  Stephens  also  found  a  copal  altar  in  a 
room  in  the  ruins  of  Tuloom,  east  coast  of  Yucatan. 1 

(c)  Another  class  of  stationary  braziers  are  the  large  pottery 
vases  of  hourglass  form  which  have  been  found  in  greater  number 
in  and  about  the  City  of  Mexico  than  elsewhere.  On  account  of 
their  size  and  decoration,  they  are  remarkable  examples  of  the  potter's 
art,  while  their  form  and  decorative  treatment  seem  to  connect 
them  closely  with  the  genius  of  Nahuatl  culture,  whose  spread  by 
conquest  has  carried  them  far  into  Central  America.  This  form 
may  be  regarded  as  the  most  characteristic  of  the  middle  American 
censer-braziers.  Though  not  definitely  mentioned  by  the  early 
chroniclers,  who  speak  usually  of  stone  braziers  when  the  material 
is  given,  they  were  surely  in  use  in  Mexico  at  the  time  of  the  con- 
quest, those  in  the  Museo  Nacional  de  Mexico, 2  being  the  only 
form  of  brazier  which  has  been  recovered  from  the  ruins  of  the  ancient 
city. 

One  of  the  most  striking  exhibits  of  the  great  National  Museum 
of  Mexico  are  the  enormous  pottery  vases,  two  of  which  were  found 
in  the  ruins  of  the  temple  of  the  curato  at  Ixtapalapa,  where  was 
celebrated  the  cyclical  feast  of  the  kindling  of  the  new  fire,  and  one 
from  Santiago  Tlaltelolco.  The  vases  each  bears  a  human  figure 
in  high  relief  painted  in  colors,  the  face  framed  in  the  gaping  mouth 
of  a  monster,  suggesting  a  mask. 

The  specimen  (pi.  5  a)  from  Ixtapalapa  has  an  hourglass  body, 
decorated  with  the  figure  of  the  god  of  fire  (?),  whose  face  appears 
somewhat  in  side  view,  who  wears  a  girdle  of  human  hands,  has  a 
circular  sign  like  that  of  Chac-Mool  (gorget?)  in  his  middle,  side 
loops  or  knots,  and  skirt  hanging  down  slantingly  on  either  side. 
The  upper  rim  of  the  vase  is  decorated  with  hanging  spikes.  Another 
specimen  from  the  same  locality  is  similar  to  the  one  just  described, 
but  the  legs  and  feet  of  the  figure  (pi.  5  o)  are  better  preserved. 
The  third  specimen,  from  Tlaltelolco,  is  almost  denuded,  giving  one 
a  view  of  the  form  of  the  vase.  (PI.  5  c.)  A  magnificent  example, 
locality  unknown,  of  rather  slender  form  and  in  excellent  preserva- 
tion, shows  excellently  the  conventionalized  human  figure  wearing 
a  crownlike  headdress  and  with  expanded  wings  springing  from  the 
sides  of  the  body.  (PI.  6  6.)  The  cinerary  vase  from  Tlaltelolco 
(pi.  6  a)  suggests  in  form  the  pottery  brazier  shown  in  plate  5  c  and 
is  a  remarkable  specimen  in  modeling  and  color.  This  vase  was 
described  by  Brantz  Mayer,3  who  says  that  it  is  22  inches  high,  15^ 
inches  in  diameter,  and  that  when  found  it  had  a  lid  and  was  filled 
with  human  skulls. 


i  Yucatan,  vol.  2,  pp.  387-409. 

*  CaUilogo  do  Departamento  de  Arqueologia  del  Museo  Nacional.    Jesus  Galindo  y  Villa.    Mexico,  1897. 

>  Mexico,  vol.  2, 1853,  p.  274. 


116 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  NATIONAL  MUSEUM. 


VOL.  42. 


These  great  pottery  braziers  are  monuments  to  the  modeler's  skill 
in  producing  a  forceful  work  from  crude  material,  and  the  final 
painting  raises  these  objects  immediately  to  a  high  plane  of  esthetic 
quality. 

Dr.  Eduard  Seler,1  in  his  account  of  the  finds  in  the  Calle  de  las 
Escalerillas,  City  of  Mexico,  some  years  ago,  remarks: 

About  20  meters  to  the  east  of  the  first  skull  altar,  or,  as  we  now  know,  the  first 
Tezcatlipoca  stone  seat,  were  found  two  pottery  vases  three-quarters  of  a  meter  in 
height,  presumably  fire  vases.  They  have  on  the  lower  border  a  decoration  of  knobs, 
and  in  the  middle  a  band  which  in  front  is  bound  into  a  large  loop.  A  rather  large 
hole  is  formed  in  the  walls  of  the  vase  from  side  to  side  at  the  level  of  the  band,  possi- 
bly for  the  passage  of  a  pole  by  means  of  which  the  heavy  vessel  was  transported. 
(PI.  7  a,  b.) 

It  will  be  interesting  to  determine  conclusively  whether  these  bra- 
ziers were  transported  by  means  of  a  pole,  as  suggested  by  the  curious 

orifice  passing  through  the  body  of  the  vase. 
If  this  opening  is  not  connected  with  the  venti- 
lation of  the  fire,  the  brazier  probably  was  used 
in  some  rite  which  required  its  transportation 
from  one  place  to  another  not  far  distant. 
The  two  Ixtapalapa  braziers  show  this  feature, 
but  apparently  the  holes  are  too  far  off  the 
center  to  admit  of  balance  on  a  pole.  (PL  5  a,  h.) 
The  Tlaltelolco  specimen  (pi.  5  c)  appears  to 
have  no  such  construction.  The  brazier  fig- 
ured by  Dr.  ISeler2  from  Copan,  Honduras,  is 


Fig.   3.— Brazier    of    pot- 
tery, Copan,  Honduras. 


perforated  in  a  similar  manner.     (Fig.  3.) 


In  describing  a  great  censer  urn  from  the  cave  of  Quen  Santo- 
Chacula,  district  of  Nenton,  Department  of  Huehuetenango,  Guate- 
mala, Dr.  Seler  records  that  "in  the  depths  of  one  of  these  caverns 
we  found  a  kind  of  altar  and  walls  which  formed  a  chapel.  We  also 
found  the  idols  in  place  and  large  urns,  the  openwork  walls  of  which 
represent  the  features  of  a  demon  having  large  eyes,  colmieres  springing 
from  the  mouth,  and  the  nose  and  chin  bristling  with  spine's.  One 
can  imagine  the  effect  this  visage  of  the  devil  would  produce  when  it 
was  illuminated  by  the  fire  on  the  interior  of  the  urn."3     (Fig.  4.) 

Enough  examples  of  the  hourglass-shape  censer-braziers  have  been 
recovered  to  enable  one  to  trace  in  their  form  and  embellishment 
certain  motives  which  remain  in  the  conventionalized  specimens 
found  at  the  three-story  temple  at  the  base  of  the  Pyramid  of  the 
Sun  at  Teotihuacan,  those  of  the  Calle  de  las  Escalerillas  in  the  City  of 

1  Seler,  Ges.  Abh.  zur  Amer.  Sprach  u.  Alterthumskunde,  vol.  2,  Berlin,  1904,  p.  883. 
J  Idem,  vol.  3,  p.  079. 
« Idem,  vol.  2,  p.  225. 


no.  1887.    CENSERS  AND  INCENSE  OF  MIDDLE  AMERICA— HOUGH.    117 

Mexico,  and  those  showing  more  realism  and  complexity  of  orna- 
ment from  Tlaltelolco. 

It  appears  that  in  many  cases  masks,  heads,  or  other  members  of  ani- 
mate beings  as  so-called  decorative  elements  are  really  vestigial  and 
refer  back  to  vessels  of  realistic  animal  form,  but  ideas  of  such  forms 
may  be  taken  by  the  artist  at  any  phase  of  design  mutation  from 
models  to  mere  traces,  and  even  to  surface  painting,  which  itself  may 
undergo  both  progressive  and  retrogressive  fluctuations  at  different 
periods.  There  is  difficulty  in  placing  the  original  forms  and  build- 
ing the  series.  Thus  the  hourglass-shape  brazier  appears  from  ves- 
tiges to  have  been  an  animal  form,  probably  human,  and  could  have 
arizen  from  the  crouched  figure  with  bowl  on  back,  examples  of 
which  have  been  found  in  various  localities,  or  readily  from  the 
human  being  in  seated  pose.  (PL  8  a.)  Many  archeological  forms 
refer  back  to  the  human  motive,  as  the  sculptured  ax  and  the  small 
jade  and  other  stones  tablets  of  Mexico  and  Central  America,  whose 
meaning  is  made  clear  by  the  aid  of  certain 
decorative  vestiges  which  they  preserve.  The 
most  noticeable  vestige  on  the  hourglass  brazier 
is  the  sash,  seen  on  the  Copan  and  Santa  Lucia 
Cozumalhuapa  specimens  (pi.  4  and  pi.  8  a), 
and  conventionalized  in  the  Teotihuacan  and 
Escalerillas  braziers,  but  with  pendants  of  corn 
and  fruits  on  the  Tlaltelolco  specimens.  The 
elaborate  knots  and  the  lappets  are  very  charac- 
teristic and  are  made  to  bear  symbolic  meaning,  in 
this  respect  resembling  the  expressive  knot  sys- 
tems of  Japan,  and  perhaps  the  evanescent  cord    FlG-  4.— bbaheb  or  censer 

„  »  .  t  rr,,  .,  i,.  urn,  Guatemala. 

figures  ot  various  peoples.  1  fie  same  idea  o  btams 
in  the  Pueblo  region  of  the  southwestern  United  States,  where  sacred 
incense  cigarettes  of  reed  joints  are  bound  with  cotton  coids,  the  ends 
hanging  free  and  the  knot  or  other  portion  of  the  cord  frequently  secur- 
ing shell  beads  of  discoidal  or  pendent  form.  (See  fig.  10  a-e.)  Some- 
times a  small  woven  cotton  sash  is  secured  around  the  cane  joint.  In 
the  same  category  are  the  pahos  of  the  Pueblos,1  which  represent  the 
human  form  and  are  supplied  with  the  wrappings  or  cinctures  under 
discussion. 

Other  vestiges  represented  by  knobs  or  spurs,  the  former  around 
the  rim  and  foot,  and  the  latter,  usually  two,  on  opposite  sides  near 
the  base,  are  not  so  clear,  but  may  be  referred  to  costume  and  parts 
of  the  body. 

Whether  the  hourglass-shaped  pottery  braziers  may  have  been  used 
to  deposit  the  remains  of  high  priests,  or  other  important  personages, 

1  Solberg,  liber  die  Bahos  der  Ilopi,  Archiv  fur  Anthropologic,  vol.  4,  1905,  pp.  48-74. 


118  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  NATIONAL  MUSEUM.  vol.42. 

appears  to  be  a  matter  worthy  of  inquiry.  The  relationship  in  form 
between  the  braziers  and  the  mortuary  vases  and  their  general  agree- 
ment in  decoration  show  at  least  that  they  have  some  concept  in 
common. 

Sahagun  1  states  that  the  Mexicans  put  the  incinerated  bones  of  the 
nobles  in  an  urn,  with  a  chalchiutl,  and  buried  them  in  a  room  of  the 
house  and  every  day  they  placed  offerings  on  the  sepulcher.  Also: 
' '  They  burnt  the  belongings  of  the  dead  because  they  pretended  that 
these  things  then  went  to  the  land  of  the  dead." 

According  to  Brantz  Mayer,  the  Tlaltelolco  vases  contained  skulls 
when  found,  and  if  only  this  portion  of  the  body  was  inurned,  may 
not  the  skulls  be  those  of  sacrifices  placed  in  a  brazier  for  interment  ? 

The  cinerary  urns  of  Tlacolula  were  for  burial  of  priests.  Chavero  2 
figures  one  of  these,  a  seated  being  with  hands  on  the  knees,  an 
elaborate  girdle,  ear  plugs,  and  modified  animal  headdress  showing 
a  row  of  teeth.  Breath  signs  also  depend  from  the  mouth.  It  is 
probable,  and  Seler  3  agrees  with  me,  that  the  braziers  were  some- 
times used  as  mortuary  urns  for  the  burial  of  a  cacique. 

II.  Censers  for  Special  Use. 

1.    PORTABLE. 

(a)  The  solidarity  and  pervasiveness  of  the  aboriginal  religion  of 
Mexico  is  strikingly  shown  from  the  observations  of  the  chroniclers, 
who  state  that  the  people  were  required  to  reenact  in  their  houses, 
in  abridged  form,  ceremonies  following  those  held  in  the  central 
religious  edifices,  and  from  such  glimpses  one  may  gather  an  inkling 
of  the  tedious  rites  of  the  domestic  cult.  Not  even  among  the 
Pueblos,  where  all  activities  are  regulated  by  or  tinged  with  the  sys- 
tem of  religious  observance,  has  such  a  binding  power  been  displayed 
as  in  Mexico,  where  each  house  was  a  temple  in  miniature.4 

Thus  the  domestic  cult  required  sufficiently  elaborate  paraphernalia 
and  apparatus  to  comply  with  the  formulated  observances  prescribed 
by  priestly  law  and  applicable  to  the  innumerable  ceremonies  of  the 
religious  calendar  as  well  as  to  classes  of  persons,  as  the  merchants, 
or  to  fraternities.  Since  the  common  act  of  all  observance  was  the 
burning  of  incense,  the  domestic  censer  was  a  vessel  whose  use  was 
almost  universal. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  no  description  by  Sahagun,  or  other  writers, 
reveals  the  form  of  the  domestic  brazier-censer  of  the  Nahuas,  but 

i  Work  cited,  p.  224. 

•  Mexico,  p.  000. 

3  Letter  of  April  l.'i,  1911. 

<  "I. as  Casts  tells  us  that  when  the  Guatemalans  built  a  new  house  they  were  careful  to  dedicate  an 
apartment  to  the  worship  of  the  household  gods;  there  they  burned  incense  and  offered  domestic  sacrifices 
upon  an  altar  erected  for  the  purpose."  Bancroft,  Native  Races,  vol.  2,  p.  780.  Las  Casas  Hist.  Apologetica 
M.  S.  Cap.,  124. 


no.  1887.    CENSERS  AND  INCENSE  OF  MIDDLE  AMERICA— HOUGH.   119 

as  none  of  the  utensils  of  pottery  recovered  shows  a  definite  class 
referable  to  braziers,  it  appears  likely  that  they  were  not  of  fixed 
form,  any  suitable  vessel  being  employed.1 

Possibly  in  the  practice  of  the  domestic  cult  the  forms  of  the  temple 
apparatus  were  copied,  and  the  hand  censer,  to  be  described  later, 
as  well  as  a  small  hourglass-shape  brazier  may  have  been  used  to  some 
extent,  though  as  a  rule  in  all  primitive  religions  most  of  the  cult 
apparatus  is  esoteric  and  belongs  to  the  fane  and  priesthood,  not 
being  seen  by  the  uninitiated  except  on  occasions  of  public  ceremony. 

A  small  terra-cotta  brazier-censer  from  excavations  in  the  Calle  de 
las  Escalerillas,  City  of  Mexico,  and  which  may  have  been  of  this  class, 
is  shown  (pi.  8  b),  and  another  from  the  pool  of  Chapultepec,  near  the 
city,  shows  a  much  conventionalized  form  (pi.  8  c). 

Another  consideration  which  bears  on  the  effectiveness  and  to  some 
extent  the  form  of  the  censer  is  the  ventilation  required  for  the  draft, 
as  in  a  stove.  The  Mexicans  had  properly  solved  this  problem  by 
making  openings,  ornamental  or  otherwise,  in  the  walls  or  the  bottom 
of  the  incense  vessels.  Gum-resins,  such  as  copal,  do  not  burn  readily, 
and  it  was  customary  to  throw  these  substances  in  the  form  of  powder 
or  small  pellets  upon  live  coals  from  the  great  permanent  brazier  fires 
or  from  the  domestic  hearth,  which  was  regarded  sacred  not  only  by 
the  Mexicans,  but  by  all  peoples  below  the  plane  of  enlightenment. 

(b)  Tripods. — In  the  non-Nahuatl  portions  of  Mexico,  however, 
generally  south  and  east  of  the  Nahuatl  area,  the  portable  censer  is 
more  commonly  known,  both  from  survivals  and  from  the  ancient 
examples  which  have  been  recovered  from  the  ruins.  Here  the  form 
is  generally  a  tripod  vessel,  the  feet  hollow,  modeled  in  a  great  variety 
of  grotesque  shapes,  supplied  with  rattles,  or  solid  and  plain. 

Doctor  Plancarte  found  in  the  Matlaltzinca  (Pirinda)  area  in  the 
Valley  of  Mexico  a  specimen  with  three  legs  and  having  perforations 
of  triangular  and  circular  shape  in  the  bottom.  This  authority  says 
that  the  censer  appears  in  his  catalogue  as  a  utensil  of  transition  be- 
tween the  temple  and  the  hearth,  but  it  may  belong  properly  to  the 
cult,  though  such  were  used  in  the  houses  "para  sahumar  a  los  recien 
llegados  y  viajcros  6  a  las  personas  principales," 2  to  fumigate  those 
recently  arrived  and  wayfarers,  or  important  persons. 

Some  Costa  Rican  censers  have  also  lids,  as  in  the  Japanese  koro 
and  the  Chinese  allied  form,  and  arc  remarkable  examples  of  the 
potter's  craft,  an  illustration  of  which,  as  well  as  one  of  the  tripod 
class  from  Guatemala,  have  been  kindly  furnished  by  Dr.  Walter 
Lehmann.     (PI.  8  d  and  pi.  9  a.) 

i  See  Seler,  work  cited,  vol.  2, 1904,  p.  S46,  fig.  42,  for  forms  found  in  the  Calle  dc  las  Escalerillas,  Mexico. 

J  Catalogo  de  la  Colcccion  del  Sen  or  Presbitcro  Don  Francisco  Plancarte,  formada,  con  la  colabracion  del 
Dueno,  por  el  Director  del  Museo  Nacional  do  Mexico.  Mexico,  1892.  Exposioion  Historico  Amercana  de 
Madrid,  Para  1892.    Seccitfn  de  Mexico. 


120 


PROCEEDIXGS  OF  THE  KATIOXAL  MUSEUM. 


vol.  42. 


The  -writer  pui chased  in  Oaxaca  in  1899  a  tripod  incense  burner  of 
terra  cotta,  the  rim  decorated  with  a  pair  of  masked  human  figures 
with  upraised  hands,  a  pair  of  birds,  two  flowers,  and  two  U-shaped 
figures,  probably  snakes.  The  figures  on  the  inner  and  outer  rim 
and  bottom  of  the  bowl  are  painted  rudely  with  white,  black,  and  a 
blue  resembling  ultramarine.     The  figure  in  the  bottom  is  evidently 

a  sun  symbol.  I  was  informed  by  the 
dealer  that  this  vessel  was  used  by  the 
Indians  for  burning  copal  and  that  the 
figures  were  "santos"  of  the  Indians. 
Diameter,  7  inches;  height  to  rim,  7  inches; 
to  headdress  of  figure,  9f  inches.  (Cat. 
No.  204692,  U.S.N.M.)     (PI.  9  6.1) 

(c)  Bowls. — The  Lacandones  of  Chiapas, 
Mexico,  observe  a  complicated  incense  rite 
yearly,  when  new  incense  burners  are  made 
and  consecrated  to  the  gods.2  The  censers 
are  of  homely  vase  or  bowl  form,  painted 
black,  white,  and  red  with  native  colors,  have  a  mask  projecting 
like  a  bowsprit  from  the  edge,  and  are  provided  with  holes  to 
insure  ventilation.  (Fig.  5.)  It  is  customary  to  place  in  the 
open  mouth  of  the  mask  offerings  of  food  and  drink  and  to  burn 
nodules  of  copal  in  the  vessel.3  The  copal  nodules  are  formed  and 
stuck  to  a  board  having  a  handle 
at  one  side,  and  they  are  symbolic- 
ally male  and  female,  resembling 
in  form  the  nodules  of  copal  found 
in  excavating  the  ancient  sites  of 
Yucatan,  and  reminding  one  of  the 
joss    sticks    and    pastilles    of    the 


Fig.    5.— Bowl    censer,    Lacan 
dones,  Chiapas,  Mexico. 


Fig.  6.— Copal  nodules,  Lacandones,  Chia- 
pas, Mexico. 


Orient.  (Fig.  6.)  In  the  censer  are 
placed  jade  figures  representing  the 
gods  of  the  Lacandones,  and  over  them  the  copal  is  burnt.  Palm 
leaves  waved  in  the  smoke  are  thought  efficacious  in  driving  away 
disease.  The  ceremony  and  the  ceremonial  use  of  the  Lacandones 
censer  is  a  remarkable  example  of  the  survival  of  an  ancient  custom, 
and  throws  light  on  much  that  was  unknown  of  the  cult  practices 
of  this  region. 

1  For  discussion  of  the  headdress  of  an  image  on  a  Oaxaca  censer,  see  Seler  in  Bulletin  28,  Bureau  of 
American  Ethnology,  190-1,  pi.  35. 

2  Tozzer,  A  comparative  study  of  the  Mayas  and  Lacandones,  Publ.  Arch.  Inst.  America,  New  York, 
1907,  p.  Hi7. 

Maler,  Mem.  Peabody  Mus.,  vol.  2,  No.  1,  p.  28. 
Selor,  work  cited,  1908,  vol.  3,  pp.  585-589. 

3  Stephens  states  thai  incense  was  burnt  on  the  stone  projecting  from  the  mouth  of  a  gigantic  mask,  the 
"Cara  Gigantesca,"  at  Izamal,  Yucatan  |  Stephen  i,  Yucatan,  vol.  2,  pp.  234-236),  suggesting  the  food  offer- 
ings in  the  mouth  of  the  mask  on  the  Lacandones  braziers. 


xo.  1887.    CENSERS  AND  INCENSE  OF  MIDDLE  AMERICA— HOUGH.    121 


The  Guatemalan  portable  incensarios  are  frequently  spinose  bowls 
with  a  head  on  one  side.  They  all  bear  evidence  of  burning  resin, 
are  of  crude,  coarse  clay,  and  some  specimens  have  lids.1 

The  censer  has  not  survived  among  the  Mayas  as  it  has  among  the 
less  modified  Lacandones;  but  L.  H.  Ayme  sent  to  the  National 
Museum  from  Merida,  Yucatan,  an  incense  burner  of  pottery  of 
gray,  coarse  paste,  washed  brown  on  the  interior  and  red  on  the 
exterior,  and  having  the  form  of  an  incurved  bowl  mounted  on  a  foot, 
and  two  rows  of  holes  punched  through  the  body  to  insure  ventila- 
tion. (Fig.  7.)  In  the  bottom  of  the  bowl  is  a  dab  of  the  red 
paint  with  which  the  exterior  is  washed.  (Compare  Oaxaca  censer, 
pi.  9  6.)  This  appears  to  be  a  vessel  for  burning  incense  in  the 
house.  (Cat.  No.  73885,  U.S.N.M., 
original  No.  17.)  Diameter,  4 1  inches; 
height,  4  inches. 

2.    GESTURE    CENSERS. 

The  third  class  of  censers  comprises 
those  held  in  the  hand  and  used  for 
wafting  incense  in  a  certain  direction 
or  toward  any  object  to  be  incensed. 
It  would  seem  that  the  requirement 
for  worship  toward  the  cardinal  points 
has  given  rise  to  the  hand  censer,  which 
in  its  most  developed  form  resembles 
a  shallow  dipper  with  a  long  handle. 
There  are  specimens  which  may  show 
a  development  of  this  form  from  a  bowl 
or  tripod  censer,  as  suggested  by: 

(a)  A  specimen  from  Oaxaca,  in  form  of  a  flaring  bowl  of  brown 
unpolished  ware  having  a  projection  from  one  side  and  a  starlike 
handle  with  four  prongs,  appears  to  be  a  censer  and  to  stand  morpho- 
logically between  the  bowls  and  hand  censers.  It  was  collected  by 
E.  O.  Matthews,  and  is  3|  inches  in  diameter  and  2J  inches  high. 
(Cat.  No.  215137,  U.S.N.M.)     (PL  10  a.) 

(b)  Openwork  pottery  tripod  vessel,  one  leg  of  which  is  extended 
to  form  a  handle.  This  type  is  usually  of  extremely  good  art,  and 
consists  of  a  cup-shaped  bowl  pierced  with  beautifully  executed 
openwork  resting  on  two  round  feet  supplied  with  rattles,  the  curved 
handle  terminating  in  a  flexed  arm,  which  forms  the  handle  and 
third  foot.     The  specimen  is  from  Oaxaca.2     (Collected  by  L.  H. 

1  See  Hough,  in  Report  of  the  Madrid  Commission,  1S92,  Washington,  1895,  p.  354. 

Seler,  work  cited,  1908,  vol.  3,  p.  625,  figures  a  spinose  vessel  of  this  construction. 

J  Rattle-foot  censer  of  brown  clay  with  dasign  perforated  and  outlined  with  scratched  lines  and  having 
bosses  on  opposite  sides.  The  end  of  the  handle  is  modeled  in  the  form  of  a  flexed  arm,  the  hand  clasping 
the  cylinder.  The  feet  and  handle  are  set  in  on  stubs.  The  triangular  ventilating  orifices  forming  tho 
openwork  design  have  been  punched  out  with  a  tool  which  leaves  the  edges  slightly  rough.  Length,  8 
inches;  height,  4  inches;  diameter,  3J  inches. 


Fig.  7.— Vase  censer  (modern),  Merida, 
Yucatan.    Collected  by  L.  H.  Ayme. 


122  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  NATIONAL  MUSEUM.  vol.42. 

Ayme.  Cat.  No.  131452,  U.S.N.M.)  (PL  10  b.)  A  number  of 
similar  censers  have  been  found. 

(c)  Among  the  Lacandones  of  Chiapas,  according  to  Tozzer,  the 
ladle  incensario  occurs,  but  plays  an  unimportant  part  in  the  rites 
and  is  used  only  in  the  ceremony  when  the  new  braseros  are  installed. 
It  consists  of  a  dipperlike  vessel  with  a  head  on  the  side  next  the 
handle,  and  is  called  akna,  "the  mother."  Tozzer  discusses  this 
type  of  incensario  *  and  says  that  the  handle  terminates  in  a  hand  in 
wliich  offerings  of  food  are  made,  while  incensarios  of  the  older 
culture  had  serpent  heads.  A  handle  of  an  incensario  from  Hon- 
duras is  figured  in  plate  19  of  Tozzer's  work.  Seler  2  figures  speci- 
mens from  Coban  in  the  collections  of  Sarg,  Sapper,  and  Dieseldorf, 
in  the  Museum  fur  Volkerkunde,  Berlin,  that  appear  to  be  incense 
spoon  handles.  They  are  of  animal  forms,  are  short,  and  some  of 
them  have  a  foot ;  and,  while  no  vessels  to  which  they  were  attached 
have  been  found,  it  is  probable  that  the  identification  by  Seler  is 
correct. 

From  the  Zapotec  area,  Oaxaca,  numerous  examples  have  been 
found  of  a  crude  ladle  of  coarse,  dark-gray  pottery,  the  bowl  of 
which  has  a  flat  bottom  with  six  or  seven  holes  punched  therein. 
The  handle  is  hollow  and  is  truncated  squarely  at  the  end.  (Cat.  Nos. 
109813,  109814,  U.S.N.M.,  Oaxaca,  Mexico.  Collected  by  L.  H. 
Ayme.)  (PI.  10  c.3) 

Kingsborough  4  figures  a  specimen  in  the  fourth  volume  of  his 
work.     The  presumption  is  that  these  are  censers  for  domestic  use. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  Dr.  Walter  Lehmann,  a  photograph  of  a 
handle  censer  from  Guanacaste,  Peninsula  of  Nicoya,  Costa  Rica, 
has  been  secured.  The  specimen  is  from  the  Velasco  collection, 
National  Museum,  San  Jose  de  Costa  Rica.  (PI.  12  c,  d.)  Its 
resemblance  to  the  Nahuatl  censer  ladle  is  apparent,  and  Lehmann 
cites  its  locality  as  "the  Mexican  enclave  of  the  Peninsula  Nicoya." 
In  point  of  specialization  it  is  hardly  so  far  advanced  as  the  Nahuatl 
variety,  its  decoration  is  southern,  and  in  some  respects  it  approxi- 
mates the  Zapotec  modified  tripod.     (See  pi.  10  b.) 

Prof.  Marshall  II.  Saville,  while  carrying  on  the  work  of  the  Heye 
Expedition  to  Ecuador,  discovered  at  Manabi  a  dipperlike  vessel, 
the  end  of  the  handle  terminating  in  a  clenched  fist,  resembling  in 
this  respect  some  of  the  censers  found  in  southern  Mexico.  It  is 
very  small  (3£  inches  long)  and  is  classed  as  a  censer.5 

'  Work  cited,  1907,  p.  110. 

J  Work  cited,  1908,  vol.  3,  pp.  604-605. 

8  Measurements:  Diameter,  5  inches;  height,  1J  inches;  length  of  handle,  4i  inches;  diameter  of  handle, 
lfV  inches. 

*  Antiquities  of  Mexico,  London,  1830-1848. 

»  Contr.  South  Amer.  Arch.  The  George  G.  Heye  Expedition.  Antiquities  of  Manabi,  Ecuador.  New 
York,  1907,  vol.  1,  pi.  54,  Qg.  5. 


no.  1887.    CENSERS  AND  INCENSE  OF  MIDDLE  AMERICA— HOUGH.    123 


Fig.  8.- 


-Ladle  censer,  Guetaro  Huacas,  Costa  Rica, 
Arellano  collection. 


Small  ladle  forms  found  in  the  huacas  of  the  Guetaro  Indians  of 
Costa  Rica  are  called  incensarios,  but  examination  of  the  specimens 
in  the  Arellano  collection,  exhibited  at  Madrid  in  1S92,1  showed  only- 
one  bearing  traces  of  fire.  There  is,  however,  a  mask  on  the  handle 
adjoining  the  bowl,  and  the  weight  of  opinion  must  class  them  as 
incensarios.  Lehmann  has  discovered  ladles  of  this  form  near 
Cartago,  Costa  Rica.     (Fig.  8.) 

(d)  The  most  familiar  object  of  this  class  and  the  most  highly 
developed  is  the  Nahuatl  hand  censer  spoon  having  a  long  handle  and 
decorated  with  painting  and 
sculpture.  This  censer  was 
held  in  the  hand  of  the  offi- 
ciating priest. and  the  fumes 
of  the  copal  or  other  incense 
wafted  toward  the  figure  of 
the  god.  They  are  rather 
frequently  found  in  the 
Nahuatl  area  of  Mexico,  and 
numbers  were  unearthed  in 
the  trenches  near  the  Cathe- 
dral plaza  in  the  Federal  district  some  years  ago,2  several  having 
been  brought  to  the  United  States  by  collectors.  Their  mode  of  use 
may  be  seen  in  numerous  instances  in  the  picture  writings,  where  the 
characteristic  extended  arm  holding  the  censer  is  graphically  depicted. 

Sahagun  describes  the  offerings  made  by  the  Mexicans  in  their 
calpulle,  and  mentions  that  the  satraps  (attendant  chief  priests) 
offered  incense  day  and  night  in  the  temples  at  certain  hours. 

They  used  for  that  purpose  censers  of  terra  cotta  in  the  form  of  a  kind  of  skillet  of 
medium  size  with  a  hollow  handle  of  the  largeness  of  a  vara  in  measure  and  of  the 
length  of  the  arm  up  to  the  elbow  or  a  little  more,  having  within  little  stones  which 
served  as  rattles.  The  censer  was  ornamented  with  sculptures  which  are  pierced  at 
intervals  from  the  middle  to  the  base.  They  took  in  it  lighted  coals  from  the  fire  and 
they  threw  on  it  copal;  they  approached  the  statue  of  the  demon  and  they  elevated 
the  censer  toward  the  four  cardinal  points;  at  the  same  time  they  incensed  also  the 
idol.  When  this  was  done  they  threw  the  coals  on  the  fire.  The  same  practice  was 
imitated  by  the  people  in  their  houses,  morning  and  evening,  before  the  statues 
which  they  had  in  their  chapels  or  in  their  courts.  The  parents  taught  their  children 
to  make  the  same  evening  and  morning.3 

Sahagun  also  tells  us  that  at  the 

feast  of  Tezcatlipoca  everyone  carried  perfume  pots.     They  made  fire  in  the  temple 
in  order  to  have  coals.     They  carried  also  copal  and  censers  of  terra-cottalike  pots, 

1  Alfaro.Anastasio.  Catalogo  de  las  Antiguidades  de  Costa  Rica  exhibidas  por  el  Excmo.  Sr.  D.  Julio 
Arellano.    Exposicion  II istorico- Americana  de  Madrid.    Madrid,  1892,  p.  17. 

Hough,  Ancient  Central  and  South  American  Pottery  in  the  Columbian  Historical  Exposition  at  Madrid 
In  1892.    Report  of  the  Madrid  Commission,  1892,  Washington,  1895,  p.  317. 

2  Seler,  work  cited,  1908,  vol.  2,  p.  856. 
'  Sahagun,  work  cited,  p.  183. 


124  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  NATIONAL  MUSEUM.  vol.42. 

pierced  and  much  worked,  that  they  called  tlemaitl  (tletl,  fire;  maitl,  arm).  They 
had  also  all  kinds  of  copal,  and  they  prepared  portions  for  use  in  the  ceremonies  cus- 
tomary in  the  service  of  that  god.  The  chief  priests,  when  a  certain  moment  of  the 
service  came,  took  coals  in  their  censers,  threw  on  them  copal  or  incense  and  incensed 
the  images  of  Uitzilopochtli  that  they  had  installed  in  the  temple  a  little  while  before. 
This  ceremony  was  not  only  made  in  this  place,  it  was  repeated  in  all  the  houses  by 
their  proprietors,  who  incensed  the  images  of  the  gods  which  they  had  at  home.  When 
they  had  finished  the  incensing  they  went  to  deposit  the  ashes  in  a  round  hearth, 
called  (lexictli  (tletl,  fire;  xictli,  navel  or  cord,  leather  band),  which  was  placed  in  the 
midst  of  the  court  where  it  was  elevated  two  spans  above  the  soil.1 

The  United  States  National  Museum  collection  contains  numerous 
handles  of  the  tlemaitl,  all  of  the  serpent  design,2  which  was  that  com- 
monly used  by  the  Nahuas,  and  a  bowl  with  a  portion  of  the  handle 
remaining,  collected  by  Dr.  Edward  Palmer  from  a  cave  at  Dos  Cami- 
nos,  25  miles  east  of  Acapulco.  The  latter  specimen  is  of  coarse 
brown  paste,  the  handle  a  hollow  tube,  the  bowl  even  in  outline  and 
perforated  with  a  design  consisting  of  four  triangles,  arranged  as  in 
the  Maltese  cross,  repeated  three  times,  and  with  a  triangle  in  each 
of  the  broad  spaces  between  the  four-part  design.  A  plain  circular 
area  is  left  in  the  bottom  of  the  bowl.  The  under  surface  has  bands 
ornamented  with  small  papillae,  and  on  one  side  of  the  bowl,  near  the 
edge,  project  two  spurs,  perhaps  rudimentary  feet.  (Diameter  of 
bowl,  7f  inches;  height,  2\  inches.  Cat.  No.  173069,  U.S.N.M.) 
(PL  12  a.)  The  handle  is  from  the  Hill  of  Tepeyac,  Mexico,  D.  F., 
and  was  collected  by  W.  W.  Blake.  It  is  tubular,  of  red  paste,  and 
shows  obscure  coiling  marks.  The  head  of  the  fire  serpent  has 
extended  tongue,  open  mouth,  projecting  teeth,  and  a  band  across 
the  neck.  The  mouth  of  the  serpent  does  not  communicate  with  the 
hollow  of  the  tube.  (Length,  12  inches;  diameter,  1£  inches.  Cat. 
No.  99081,  U.S.N.M.)     (PL  12  h.) 

The  writer  may  be  pardoned  for  introducing  at  this  point  for  com- 
parison an  oriental  hand  censer  which  presents  remarkable  similarity 
to  the  Mexican  hand  censers  just  described.  The  specimen  is  from 
Japan  and  is  described  as  an  "ancient  hand  censer,"  used  in  temple 
worship  for  directing  the  smoke  of  incense  toward  the  images  of  the 
gods.  A  dragon  is  coiled  about  the  handle,  and  the  latter  in  turn 
passes  around  the  middle  of  a  constricted  vase  with  foot.  It  com- 
bines the  sedentary  Tcoro  with  the  hand  censer,  more  fully  than  the 
Chinese  type.  (Cat.  No.  6330,  U.S.N.M.  Collected  by  the  late  Gen. 
O.  E.  Wood,  U.  S.  Army.)  (PL  11.)  The  Chinese  employ  a  similar 
hand  censer,  but  more  conventionalized  in  design. 

(e)  A  tubular  incense  apparatus,  through  which  or  from  which 
smoke  may  be  blown  by  expulsion  of  the  breath,  was  anciently  used 
in  Mexico,  as  witnessed  by  the  sculptures  of  the  Palenque  altar  and 

1  Sahagun,  work  cited,  p.  101. 

»  The  handle  sometimes  terminated  in  the  talons  of  the  eagle.    See  Seler,  work  cited,  vol.  2,  1908,  p.  862. 


no.  1887.    CENSERS  AND  INCENSE  OF  MIDDLE  AMERICA— HOUGH.    125 

drawings  in  the  Manuscript  Troano  figured  by  McGuire.1  This  pipe 
censer  is  found  on  ancient  sites  in  the  region  west  of  the  Rio  Grande 
and  south  of  the  great  breaks  in  New  Mexico  and  Arizona.  It  is  a 
hollow,  truncated  cone,  usually  of  tuff,  often  showing  traces  of  red 
and  yellow  pigment  and  from  6  to  14  inches  in  length,  the  diameter 
varying  from  1^  to  4  inches.  It  was  found  in  the  larger  rooms  of 
ruins,  associated  with  small  painted  mortars,  decorated  slabs,  and 
other  cult  apparatus,  and  which  almost  invaiiably  show  traces  of  fire. 
Its  connection  with  the  small  tubular  "pipes,"  either  straight  or 
frequently  bent  at  a  slight  angle,  found  north  of  the  "breaks"  and 
in  use  at  the  present  day  in  religious  ceremonies  by  the  Pueblos,  has 
been  suggested  by  Dr.  J.  Walter  Fewkes,  who  says  that  by  interpre- 
tation of  the  Hopi  name  it  is  a  "cloud  blower."  Dr.  Fewkes 
informs  me  that  the  large  pipe  used  in  the  Winter  Solstice  ceremony 
and  called  the  "great  snow  pipe"  is  made  especially  for  the  ceremony 
and  has  a  capacity  of  about  half  a  pint  of  the  sacred  tobacco  mixture. 
It  is  of  clay,  not  decorated,  and  the  object  of  its  use  is  to  create  a  big 
smoke  cloud  as  a  petition  for  snow,  exemplifying  the  "gesture  prayer." 
The  writer  has  observed  the  use  of  such  tubes  in  Hopi  ceremonies, 
where  the  celebrant  fills  the  pipe  with  aromatic  herbs,  lights  it  from 
the  kiva  fire,  and,  inhaling,  blows  a  compact  cloud  of  smoke  as  an 
offering  to  the  rain  gods  or  other  beings  who  move  in  the  sky  behind 
cloud  masks.  The  connection  is  obvious,  but  often  the  large  size  of 
the  southern  blower  would  prevent  individual  use  as  above,  and  some 
other  method  of  producing  the  smoke  or  incense  cloud  is  indicated. 
Several  specimens  in  the  National  Museum  have  orifices  through  the 
wall  of  the  blower  in  its  lower  half,  and  one  specimen  found  by  the 
Museum-Gates  exploring  expedition  of  1905  has  a  series  of  holes 
around  the  base  near  the  lower  edge.  These  orifices  may  be  designed 
to  promote  the  draft,  which  may  have  been  increased  by  the  inser- 
tion of  a  reed  tube,  and  they  are  analogous  to  the  triangular  cuts 
through  the  basin  of  the  incensarios  found  in  theCalle  de  las  Escalerillas 
and  in  other  parts  of  Mexico,  as  well  as  those  vase  forms  from  the 
Lacandones,  the  ancient  Mayas  of  Yucatan,  and  the  ancients  of  the 
Peninsula  of  Nicoya,  Costa  Rica.  This  resemblance,  which  may 
seem  a  mere  detail,  is  significant. 

A  specimen  of  the  tubular  cloud-blower  in  the  National  Museum 
is  made  of  friable  tufa  deeply  colored  by  the  effects  of  fire.  The 
cavity  has  been  drilled  from  both  ends,  the  upper  portion  of  the 
cavity  being  much  larger  than  the  lower,  as  in  the  smaller  pipes.  A 
shoulder  is  formed  in  the  upper  extremity  of  the  pipe,  and  through 
this  shoulder  a  diagonal  hole  has  been  perforated  into  the  bowl  of 
the  tube,  in  this  way  resembling  very  much  the  treatment  of  a  Hopi 

1  Pipes  and  Smoking  Customs  of  the  American  Aborigines,  Ann.  Rep.  U.  S.  Nat.  Mus.,  1887,  p.  371, 
and  frontispiece. 


126  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  NATIONAL  MUSEUM.  vol.42. 

field  oven  with  its  draft  hole.  Another  perforation  extends  hori- 
zontally through  the  wall  near  the  base  of  the  pipe.  The  exterior 
of  the  pipe  has  as  fine  a  finish  as  the  material  will  bear  and  is  well 
shaped.  Length,  13£  inches;  diameters,  2f ,  2£,  and  1£  inches.  (Cat. 
No.  98228,  U.S.N.M.,  New  Mexico.  Collected  by  E.  W.  Nelson.) 
(PI.  f  3  a.) 

Another  cloud-blower  is  of  coarse  tufa  of  yellow-brown  color, 
excavated  from  both  ends,  giving  an  hourglass-shaped  section; 
form,  a  truncated  cone  with  raised  molding  near  larger  extremity. 
Traces  of  vertical  bands  of  red,  yellow,  and  black  pigment  appear 
on  the  surface.  Half  of  the  blower  is  missing.  Found  in  a  cere- 
monial room  of  the  large  pueblo  ruin  on  Spur  ranch,  near  Luna,  New 
Mexico.  Length,  8|  inches;  diameter,  4  inches;  diameter  of  mouth- 
piece, 3|  inches;  lower  end,  2\  inches;  orifice,  If  inches.  (Cat.  No. 
231904,  U.S.N.M.     Collected  by  Walter  Hough.)      (PL  13  b.) 

In  his  important  and  valuable  paper  on  aboriginal  pipes  and 
smoking  customs,1  Mr.  J.  D.  McGuire  has  brought  together  by  far 
the  largest  collection  of  information  on  this  subject.  The  pipe, 
this  author  has  pointed  out,  antedates  the  use  of  narcotic  herbs, 
such  as  tobacco,  and  he  concludes  that  "the  importance  of  smoke 
appears  to  have  been  chiefly,  if  not  entirely,  due  to  its  supposed 
medicinal  properties."  Mr.  McGuire  also  points  out  that  the  offer- 
ings of  incense  by  the  Aztecs  to  the  Spanish  invaders  under  Cortes 
were  in  many  respects  similar  to  the  familiar  pipe  customs  of  the 
Indians,  and  pipes  of  like  shape  are  traced  from  southern  Mexico 
to  British  possessions  in  the  north. 

It  is  manifest  that  the  custom  of  smoking  did  not  originate  in 
gustatory  enjoyment,  but  following  along  the  line  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  fire  cult,  smoke  had  an  esoteric  or  sacred  meaning. 
The  first  offerings  would  be  from  a  static  fireplace,  such  as  the 
camp  fire,  and  as  progress  was  made  in  the  arts  of  life  the  caring  for 
fire  in  portable  appliances  would  give  rise  to  braziers  in  great 
variety — as,  for  example,  the  bowl-shaped  censer  of  the  Lacan- 
dones  and  the  handled  censer  of  the  Nahuatl,  which  correspond 
respectively,  to  the  static  and  handled  censers  of  Japan  and  China. 
The  swinging  censer  of  Europe  is  evidently  a  development  of  a 
sedentary  vase  form.  The  pipe  itself  seems  to  be  a  development 
from  a  sedentary  form  which  has  survived  in  the  "great  pipes" 
sometimes  occurring  among  the  North  American  Indians.  As  an 
outgrowth  of  environment,  culture,  and  customs,  smaller  pipe 
forms  were  adopted  and  the  original  intention  of  smoke  offerings 
was  much  modified  by  individual  circumstances.  We  have  also  an 
interesting  analogy  between  the  handled  censer  in  Mexico  and  the 
peace   pipe1    used    in    ceremonies   by  the   North   American   Indians, 

» Ann.  Rep.  U.  S.  Nat.  Mus.,  1887,  footnote,  p.  125. 


no.  1887.    CENSERS  AND  INCENSE  OF  MIDDLE  AMERICA— HOUGH.    127 


both  utensils  showing,  it  is  presumed,  the  likeness  due  to  similar 
needs  rather  than  to  direct  acculturation. 

The  following  is  a  description  of  the  specimens  figured  on  plate  14: 
Pipe  of  gray  vesicular  rock,  shallow  bowl,  uniform  tube  leading  to 
center  of  bowl.  Diameter,  If  inches;  height,  2  inches.  (Cat.  No. 
212609,  U.S.N.M.)  Scorse  ranch,  near  Holbrook,  northeastern  Ari- 
zona.    Collected  by  Walter  Hough.     (PL  14  a.) 

Made  of  purple  vesicular  lava;  bowl  not  much  enlarged;  tube  of 
large  caliber.  Diameter,  1J  inches;  height,  If  inches.  (Cat.  No. 
212102,  U.S.N.M.)  Petrified  forest,  Arizona.  Collected  by  Walter 
Hough.     (PI.  14  b.) 

Of  yellow  sandstone;  bowl  large  and  conical,  joined  by  a  small 
orifice  at  apex  of  cone  formed  in  the  base.  (Cat.  No.  149435, 
U.S.N.M.)  Arizona.  Collected  by  R.  J. 
Coyne.  Diameter,  1|  inches;  height,  2| 
inches.     (PI.  14  c.) 

Of  dense,  vesicular  lava,  brown  to  blue  in 
color,  finely  finished;  the  bowl  very  deep. 
Diameter,  1J  inches;  length,  2^  inches. 
Petrified  forest,  Arizona.  Collected  by 
Walter  Hough.  (Cat.  No.  212131. 
U.S.N.M.)     (PI.  14  d.) 

Pipe  of  pottery;  brown  color,  surface 
highly  polished,  bowl  deep,  meeting  smaller 
orifice  perforating  its  bottom.  (Cat.  No. 
156132,  U.S.N.M.)  Length,  2 J  inches; 
diameter,  §  inch.  Sikyatki,  Arizona.  Col- 
lected by  J.  Walter  Fewkes.     (PI.  14  e.) 

Pipe  of  pottery;  exquisitely  finished,  brown  color,  stem  squared, 
bowl  swelled  and  terminating  in  a  collar.  Length,  2\  inches;  diam- 
eter, £■  inch.  (Cat.  No.  213250,  U.S.N.M.)  Awatobi,  Arizona. 
Collected  by  the  Museum-Gates  Expedition,  1901.     (PI.  14/.) 

Pipe  of  brownish  tufa;  bowl  and  stem  of  equal  length,  side  of  bowl 
decorated  with  cross  formed  by  small  holes  drilled  in  the  material. 
Length,  2f  inches;  bowl,  1  inch  by  3  inches.  (Cat.  No.  234768, 
U.S.N.M.)  Jemez,  New  Mexico.  Collected  by  Mrs.  Matilda  Coxe 
Stevenson.     (PI.  14  g.) 

Pottery  pipe  exquisitely  finished,  mouth  portion  flared;  body 
ridged  as  though  wrapped  with  cord,  except  collar  portion  at  the 
forward  end.  Length,  2ff  inches;  diameter,  f  inch.  (Cat.  No. 
156154,  U.S.N.M.)  Awatobi,  Arizona.  Collected  by  J.  Walter 
Fewkes.     (PI.  14  A.) 

Pipe  of  dark  gray  stone,  well  finished;  bowl,  shallow  cone;  base 
flattened  and  expanded.  (Cat.  No.  234769,  U.S.N.M.)  Jemez  Pla- 
teau, New  Mexico.  Collected  by  Mrs.  Matilda  Coxe  Stevenson. 
Length,  2 £  inches;  diameter,  £  inch.     (PI.  14  i.) 


Fig. 9.— Ancient  pottery  brazier- 
censer,  City  of  Mexico. 


128 


PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  NATIONAL  MUSEUM. 


VOL.  41'. 


Pipe  of  brown  pottery  consisting  of  a  flaring  stem;  circular  bowl 
surmounted  by  a  broad  collar  ornamented  with  cross-shaped  design 
in  perforations  and  scratched  on  the  surface.  Length,  2h  inches; 
diameter,  l\  inches.  (Cat.  No.  244762,  U.S.N.M.)  Jemez  Plateau, 
New  Mexico.     Collected  by  E.  L.  Hewett.     (PL  14  j.) 

Pipe  of  pottery,  quadrangular  shape,  rounded  at  the  base  and  with 
a  collar  near  the  mouth,  decorated  on  two  sides  with  the  light- 
ning a  r  r  o  w.  The 
pipe  bears  a  black, 
highly  lustrous  pol- 
ish. (Cat.  No.  47759, 
U.S.N.M.)  San  Juan 
Pueblo,  New  Mexico. 
Collected  by  J.  W. 
Powell.  Length,  4£ 
inches;  \\  inches  by 
I  inch.  (PI.  14  Tc.) 
(/)  Cigarettes. — 
Still  another  form  of 
offering  is  the  sec- 
tion of  cane  tube 
charged  with  vegetal 
incense  found  rather 
generally  in  the 
Pueblo  region,  but 
especially  in  the 
southern  portion. 

The  cigarette  is 
filled  with  a  mixture 
of  herbs,  which, 
when  burnt,  pro- 
duces  a  pleasant 
odor,  but  generally 
the  tubes  packed 
with  the  mixture 
have  not  had  fire  put  to  them  and  obviously  the  offering  is  by 
implication.  In  some  cases,  however,  the  cigarettes  have  been 
lighted  at  the  time  of  offering,  as  in  certain  shrines  observed  in  caves 
on  the  Blue  Kiver,  Arizona,  these  usually  being  the  larger  canes  of 
functional  size  and  not  the  miniature  tubes  which  occur  in  such  great 
profusion. 

The  cigarettes  (fig.  10)  are  girdled  with  strands  of  white  or  dyed 
cotton  cord;  miniature  blankets  and  sometimes  beads  or  feathers  are 
attached,  the  object  inthe  mind  of  the  worshipper  being  to  duly  clothe 


Fig.  10  (a,  6,  c,  d,  e).— Reed  cigarettes  with  cincture,  Arizona.. 
Collected  by  Hough  and  Cooley. 


no.  1887.    CENSERS  AND  INCENSE  OF  MIDDLE  AMERICA— HOUGH.    129 


these  offerings  in  consonance  with  the  belief  that  they  were  animate, 
and,  further,  that  they  represented  the  human  body,  as  has  been 
pointed  out  with  regard  to  the  censers  and  braziers.  Rudiments  of 
this  girdle  are  seen  on  small  tubular  pipes  from  northern  Arizona 
(pi.  14/,  h,  j,  Tc),  which  appear  to  show  their  relation  to  the  cane 
incense  tube,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  longer  plain  tubular  pipes 
were  girdled  with  cord  and  feathers  at  the  time  of  offering,  as  in  some 
modern  Pueblo  examples. 

Similarly,  some  of  the  Mexican  pottery  censers  of  hourglass  shape 
bear  a  girdle  in  relief  representing  the  cord 
tied  in  a  symbolic  bow.     (Fig.  9.) 

There  is  also  a  close  connection  with 
respect  to  the  cigarette  between  the  Mexi- 
cans and  the  Pueblos.  Abundant  refer- 
ences in  the  writings  of  the  chroniclers 
show  that  cigarettes  cut  from  reeds, 
painted  in  various  patterns  and  colors, 
filled  with  different  kinds  of  odorous 
herbs  and  other  aromatic  substances  pul- 
verized and  mixed  together,  were 
smoked  ceremonially. 

3.    SWINGING    CENSERS. 

(a)  The  swinging  censers  which  remain 
to  be  discussed  are  not  indigenous  to  the 
Western  Hemisphere,  but  have  been  intro- 
duced by  the  religious  orders.  The 
Museum  possesses  a  specimen  from  the 
Oxchiri  Indians  of  Chiapas,  Mexico, 
winch  shows  an  interesting  adaptation 
of  native  materials  and  art.  It  consists 
of   an  hourglass-shaped  basket  of  ixtle    FlG-  n. -swinging  censer  holder, 

....  -ii  i  a  ,     ,  i  Indians  of  Oxchiri,  Chiapas.    Col- 

cord  twined  over  a  coiled  rod.     At  the      lected  by  l.  h.  ayme. 
narrowest     portion    are    attached    four 

braided  cords  which  are  bunched  at  the  ends  and  form  a  sling  by 
wliich  the  censer  may  be  swung.  These  cords  can  be  drawn  together 
with  a  sliding  ring.  The  incense,  of  copal,  is  burned  in  a  bowl  of 
earthenware  which  fits  in  the  larger  concavity  of  the  basket,  and  the 
apparatus  is  presumed  to  have  been  used  in  the  celebration  of  mass  in 
the  poor  country  churches  attended  by  Indians  not  possessed  of  a 
metal  censer.  Diameter,  top,  5|  inches;  bottom,  5|  inches;  height, 
4^  inches;  length  of  cords,  23  inches.  Collected  by  L.  H.  Ayme\ 
(Cat.  No.  76895,  U.S.N.M.)  (Fig.  11.) 
20441°— Proc.N.M.  vol.42— 12 9 


130  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  NATIONAL  MUSEUM.  vol.42. 

REMARKS  ON  THE  CENSER  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA. 

The  apparatus  discussed  in  this  paper  is  most  prevalent  in  central 
and  eastern  Mexico,  less  so  in  Central  America,  and  gradually  dimin- 
ishes through  the  South  American  cultures.  Information  concerning 
South  American  cult  apparatus  is  extremely  limited  because  the  his- 
torical and  linguistic  nexus  has  been  lost,  and  no  knowledge  is  recov- 
erable from  a  vocabulary  of  symbolic  art,  so  rich  in  Mexico.  The 
tripods  and  stool  forms  of  Chiriqui,  described  by  Holmes,1  some  of  the 
carved  stone  metates,  pottery  vessels  of  tazza  and  tripod  forms  of 
Ecuador  and  Peru  may  have  been  designed  as  censers,  but  beyond 
their  relationships  in  shape  and  in  some  features  of  construction  and 
adornment  no  approximately  conclusive  data  can  be  put  forward 
concerning  South  American  censers.  Incense  was  offered  on  the 
figure  braziers  of  Ecuador,  and  no  doubt  incense  was  known  in  Peru 
and  Bolivia,  but  little  has  been  published  of  the  vast  stores  of  relics 
from  this  area  in  museums. 

DISCUSSION  OF  THE  USE  OF  INCENSE  IN  WORSHIP. 

The  offering  of  incense  is  almost  universal.  Tribes  which  have 
reached  a  stage  where  recurrent  rites  are  observed,  and  where  cere- 
monials have  attained  some  complexity,  make  use  of  this  feature  of  the 
fire  cult,  and  below  this  grade  of  culture  individual  or  family  acts  of 
worship  often  show  the  employment  of  incense  or  fire  offerings. 

While  fire  may  be  primary  in  regard  to  the  origin  of  the  idea  of 
incense,  it  became  secondary  as  applied  to  advancing  cults;  that  is, 
offerings  were  not  confined  to  the  communal  house  or  camp  fire,  but 
were  made  on  special  hearths  or  in  special  apparatus.  Nevertheless, 
no  incense  was  so  offered  that  was  not  ignited  from  a  sacred  fire;  that 
is,  one  carefully  prepared  to  insure  purity,  and  secured  from  the 
ancient  wood  drill,  from  lightning,  lens,  mirror,  or  other  consecrated 
or  supernatural  source.  New  fire  is  kindled  by  the  Lacandones  of 
Chiapas  by  wood  friction  for  use  in  consecrating  censers  and  igniting 
copal  burned  at  that  time. 

The  new  fire  is  thought  by  the  Lacandones  to  be  efficacious  in  heal- 
ing sickness,  the  soot  collection  on  palm  leaves  being  the  common 
method,  but  a  stone  heated  in  the  fire  and  used  to  warm  water 
renders  the  latter  a  panacea  for  fever.2 

The  phenomena  which  accompany  combustion  are  so  familiar 
that  the  man  of  our  times  passes  over  the  marvel  of  smoke,  flame, 
and  ashes  without  analysis  or  comment.  To  the  man  of  a  certain 
stage  of  advancement  we  may  suppose  that  the  wonder  of  the  birth, 

i  Anclenl  Art  of  the  Province  of  Chiriqui,  Colombia.    Sixth  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  American 
Ethnology,  1S88. 
«  Tozzer,  work  oiled,  1907,  p.  164. 


no.  1887.    CENSERS  AND  INCENSE  OF  MIDDLE  AMERICA— HOUGH.    131 

life,  and  death  of  fire  was  a  vivid  reality;  it  is  evident  from  a  survey 
of  the  widespread  remnants  of  the  fire  cult  that  the  steps  of  this 
mysterious  physical  manifestation  impressed  his  mind,  determined 
an  attitude  (creed),  and  predicted  a  course  of  action  (cult)  in  conso- 
nance with  the  observed  facts  of  fire  action. 

The  lore  of  smoke  is  extensive,  embracing  individual  acts  and 
collective  acts  relating  to  fumigations  both  sacred  and  profane. 
The  ideas  relative  to  the  purification,  healing,  scaring  of  demons, 
removing  of  evil  influences,  etc.,  effected  by  smoke  have  been  in  the 
minds  of  votaries  of  fire  worship  in  divers  countries  and  periods, 
and  it  is  even  probable  that  fumigations  alluded  to  by  Shakespeare, 
in  Much  Ado  About  Nothing,  where  a  perfumer  is  ordered  to 
smoke  a  musty  room,  or  when  in  The  Taming  of  the  Shrew  the 
command  is  given,  "And  burn  sweet  wood  to  make  the  lodging 
sweet,"  there  was  also  involved  some  antique  belief  in  dispelling  bad 
influences,  which  may  be  classed  as  primitive  sanitation. 

The  use  of  smoke  in  worship,  however,  seems  to  have  arisen  from 
the  observation  that  this  ghostly  element  of  combustion  dissolved 
in  the  air,  passing  away  from  sight  mysteriously,  like  fog  and  cloud 
vapor,  thus  supplying  a  messenger  to  the  unseen.  It  must  not  be 
forgotten  also  that  to  unspoiled  senses  the  odor  of  smoke  would  be 
strikingly  pungent  and  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  attribute  of 
fire,  a  potent  and  far-reaching  means  of  calling  the  attention  of 
supernatural  beings,  propitiating  or  frightening  them.  The  Homeric 
and  Jewish  idea  was  that  a  sweet  savor  was  pleasing  to  divinity, 
and  tliis  appears  to  be  the  most  widely  diffused  idea  connected  with 
the  burning  of  incense  in  worship,  while  offerings  to  the  fire  which 
at  one  time  were  customary  may  have  been  for  the  double  purpose 
of  pleasing  the  spirits  with  incense,  and  of  feeding  them.  The  offer- 
ing was  consumed  by  the  fire  and  disappeared  from  human  sight, 
thus  being  analogous  to  the  practice  of  throwing  offerings  into  springs 
or  rivers. 

Mr.  J.  N.  B.  Hewitt  informs  the  writer  that  the  Iroquois  use 
tobacco  smoke  to  make  authentic  a  petition,  and  states  that  in  the 
New  Year  ceremony  the  Life  God,  whose  vitality  is  supposed  to 
wane  during  the  year,  presents  a  petition  for  restoration,  and  in 
order  to  give  value  to  his  petition  a  portion  of  the  rite  is  marked 
by  the  burning  of  tobacco  for  this  purpose.  The  solemn  ceremonies 
also  connected  with  the  calumet  may  involve  this  idea.  The  calumet 
is  passed  around  in  order  of  official  seniority  during  the  council 
and  he  who  holds  it  affirms  his  speech  by  blowing  a  cloud  of  smoke. 
Similarly,  in  the  ratification  of  peace,  the  pipe  was  an  important 
adjunct,  without  which  the  terms  would  not  be  binding.  It  is 
probable  here,  as  in  many  other  rites  connected  with  the  use  of 
incense,  that  the  smoke  is  designed  to  open  communication  with 


132  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  NATIONAL  1WSEUU.  vol.  42. 

—  .  ^ 

the  spirit  world  by  attracting  the  attention  of  the  intangible  beings. 
Mr.  Hewitt  says,  however,  that  it  is  the  tobacco  rather  than  the 
odor  that  is  offered  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  deities;  that  is,  the  soul, 
or  the  reality,  of  the  tobacco  is  what  reaches  the  gods.  By  means 
of  separate  acts  there  is  a  twofold  use  of  tobacco  in  a  peace  or 
other  council — the  one  to  compose  the  minds  of  the  councilors  and 
the  other  to  invoke  the  good-will  of  the  gods  to  whom  it  is  offered  in 
sacrifices. 

Incense  was  probably  at  first  the  smoke  of  wood  or  of  leaves, 
then  later  selected,  compounded  of  several  materials,  and  made 
sacred  by  rites.1  It  was  finally  sought  all  over  the  world,  and 
a  commerce  in  "frankincense  and  myrrh"  was  one  of  the  chief 
agencies  in  bringing  a  knowledge  of  the  people  of  the  Tropics  to  those 
of  northern  zones. 

The  incense  from  South  America,  according  to  Humboldt,2  was 
from  the  Idea  gujanensis  and  Idea  tacamdhaca.  That  used  most 
commonly  in  Mexico  and  Central  America  was  the  gum  of  the  Protium 
heptapTiyllum,  called  copal  by  the  Spanish.  This  tree  is  also  a 
Bursera,  from  which  genus  the  most  precious  incense  gums  of  the 
world  are  derived.  "The  Mexicans  and  all  the  inhabitants  of  New 
Spain  made  use  (wluch  they  pursue  yet  somewhat  to-day)  in  their 
offerings  of  that  incense  of  copal,  a  kind  of  white  gum  which  they 
call  copalli,  for  incensing  their  gods.  They  had  not  recourse  to  our 
true  incense,  because  it  was  not  found  in  their  country.  It  was 
copal  that  the  satraps  used  in  the  temple  and  everyone  in  the 
private  houses,  as  we  have  said  above." 3  Tozzer  states  that  the 
sap  of  the  rubber  tree  was  used  by  the  Lacandones.  The  wood  and 
leaves  and  the  resins  of  the  pine  trees  in  Mexico  had  important 
cult  uses.  Pine  needles  are  used  as  incense  by  the  Hopi,  as  they  are 
by  the  Tibetans. 

In  the  descriptions  of  the  home  life  of  the  Mexicans,  transmitted  by 
the  early  chroniclers,  it  is  stated  that  vases  filled  with  smouldering 
incense  diffused  their  perfumes  through  the  rooms,4  and  numerous 
mentions  of  such  usage  give  the  impression  that  it  was  customary 
to  burn  odorous  substances  as  a  matter  of  refinement  and  for  per- 
sonal pleasure,  just  as  the  use  of  tobacco  became  secularized. 

INCENSE   MATERIALS. 

In  the  course  of  time,  with  the  growth  of  ceremonies  and  the  increas- 
ing complexity  of  culture,  incense  became  differentiated  into  kinds  and 
preparations  appertaining  to  the  various  deities  and  celebrants. 
There  may  have  been  many  prescribed  varieties  of  incense,  and  of 

1  The  Jews  had  at  first  4  ingredients  and  later  13.    Numbers,  xvi. 

3  Cosmos,  vol.  2,  p.  204. 

■  Bahagun,  work  cited,  p.  183. 

*  Bancroft,  Native  Races,  vol.  2,  p.  573. 


no.  1887.    CENSERS  AND  INCENSE  OF  MIDDLE  AMERICA— HOUGH.   133 

those  whose  names  have  survived  in  the  chronicles  are  copal  bianco 
white  copal,  with  mixtures  of  tobacco,  etc. ;  incenso  comun,  ordinary 
incense;  and  cliapopopotli,  bitumen,  the  latter  used  in  the  worship 
of  the  god  of  war,  Huitzilopochtli,  all  the  foregoing  being  employed 
by  the  Nahuas.  The  Mayas  used  copal;  copal  ground  with  maize; 
caoutchouc;  zacah,  a  kind  of  incense  burned  by  priests;  and  chachalte, 
burned  by  nobles.1 

The  Mexicans,  like  other  peoples  in  close  touch  with  their  environ- 
ment, were  acquainted  with  the  properties  of  plants,  and  to  this  day 
the  exhaustive  pharmaceutic  and  utilitarian  botany  of  a  village 
market  is  one  of  the  most  surprising  things  one  meets  with  in  that 
country.  The  ancient  Mexicans  had  thus  ransacked  the  plant  world 
for  vegetal  substances,  which  on  burning  would  produce  an  agreeable 
odor,  many  of  which  are  mentioned  in  the  works  of  Hernandez, 
Monardes,  and  others,  but  whose  identification  botanically  is  almost 
invariably  impossible  owing  to  incomplete  characterization. 

Dr.  S.  A.  Barrett  informs  me  that  at  the  present  time  the  Cayapas 
use  in  Ecuador  for  religious  feasts  a  sort  of  whitish  resinous  substance 
(copal)  which  comes  from  the  interior  of  the  country.  They  do  not 
have  very  much  of  it,  and  prize  it  very  highly  on  account  of  having 
come  from  such  a  distance.  They  burn  this  substance  at  the  time 
of  a  death. 

There  is  a  great  confusion  as  to  the  identity  of  copal,  the  name, 
according  to  some  writers,  being  used  to  cover  a  number  of  gums. 
It  is  possible  that  the  confusion  has  arisen  from  post  conquest  times 
when  errors  multiplied  rapidly  as  the  Mexican  culture  slipped  swiftly 
into  the  background,  for  the  earliest  reliable  chroniclers  are  clear  as  to 
the  commonest  use  of  the  gum  which  we  know  as  copal,  and  whose 
characteristic  odor  would  place  it  distinctly  in  the  first  rank  of  incense 
materials. 

The  following  notes  from  Sahagun  refer  to  various  vegetal  sources 
of  incense  substances  burnt  for  the  odor: 

There  is  a  plant  called  quauhjayaual.  Its  roots  are  long  and  become  green  at  the 
ends.  The  leaves  are  small  and  round.  The  exterior  of  the  plant  mixed  with  incense 
acts  as  perfume.    The  root  is  of  no  utility.     They  find  the  plant  on  the  mountains.2 

There  is  another  plant  called  tlalpoyomatli,  of  which  the  leaves  are  ashy,  soft,  and 
velvety.  It  has  flowers.  Its  odor  has  caused  it  to  be  chosen  for  the  perfumes  which 
they  introduce  into  the  reeds  for  smoking.     Its  aroma  spreads  far.3 

This  appears  to  be  the  artemesia,  sage,  which  was  a  sacred  plant 
among  the  Pueblos  and  many  other  tribes  of  Indians. 

There  is  a  small  wild  tree  called  teocote  (Pinus  teocote),  of  which  the  root  has  the 
odor  of  incense  when  it  is  burnt.  Only  the  lords  and  the  dignitaries  have  the  privi- 
lege of  using  it.     Other  persons  are  not  authorized  and  have  not  the  right  to  use  it.4 

1  Bancroft,  Native  Races,  vol.  2,  p.  702;  Tozzer,  op.  cit.,  1903,  p.  20. 
3  Sahagun,  work  cited,  p.  753. 
3  Idem,  work  cited,  p.  766. 
*  Idem,  work  cited,  p.  731. 


134  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE  NATIONAL  MUSEUM.  vol.  42. 

There  is  a  tree  from  which  exudes  the  white  resin  called  copal,  which  is  the  incense 
offered  to  the  gods  by  the  Mexicans.  They  sell  it  now  very  much  in  the  markets, 
because  it  is  employed  as  a  remedy  and  is  good  for  a  great  number  of  things.  It  is 
produced  in  the  Provinces  of  Tepequaciulco,  Yonala,  and  Conixco. 

There  exists  a  tree  called  ocotzoguanitl,  "resin  tree"  (Liquidambar  styracifolia) .  It 
is  high,  large,  and  has  leaves  like  the  willow.  It  exudes  a  resin  that  they  employ  in 
the  reeds  that  serve  for  smoking.1 

Prof.  Frederick  Starr  figures  modern  Mexican  incense  burners,  and 
gives  numerous  instances  of  the  continuance  of  the  practice  which 
still  maintains  the  demand  for  copal,  and  rolls  of  this  gum  wrapped 
in  corn  husk  may  now  be  found  on  sale  in  the  markets  of  Mexico.2  It 
is  usually  formed  into  a  roll  about  three-fourths  of  an  inch  in  diameter 
and  6  inches  long,  enveloped  in  corn  husk,  or  wild  plantain,  tied  at 
either  end  and  around  the  roll  with  strips  of  fiber.  The  National 
Museum  has  a  specimen  (Cat.  No.  261999,  U.S.N.M.)  collected  in 
Tampico  by  Dr.  Edward  Palmer.     (Fig.  12.) 

Tobacco  was  also  a  sacred  herb,  and  its  smoke  was  unquestionably 
incense.  The  wild  tobacco  plant  is  incorporated  in  the  mixture  used 
as  incense  by  the  Hopi  and  some  other  American  tribes.  Seler  states 
that  tobacco  '  'played  precisely  the  same  part  among  the  priests  and 


Fig.  12.— Copal  prepared  for  market,  Tampico,  Mexico.    Collected  by  Edward  Palmer. 

medicine  men  oi  ancient  Mexico  as  it  has  from  the  remotest  times 
down  to  the  present  day  among  the  various  savage  tribes  of  North 
and  South  America." 3  It  was  powdered  and  mixed  with  incense  and 
formed  into  pellets  which  were  carried  in  a  pouch  by  officiating  priests. 
In  other  parts  of  the  United  States  artemesia,  the  balsam  root,  cedar 
tops,  sweet  grass,  and,  among  the  Siksika,  a  sweet  gum  of  some  kind 
were  burned  for  incense.4 

There  must  exist  implements  and  utensils  connected  with  the  gath- 
ering and  preparation  of  incense,  but  which  are  not  recognized  as 
such.  The  powdering  of  copal,  mixing  it  with  tobacco  and  other 
substances,  forming  it  into  pellets  or  nodules  with  the  aid  of  heat, 
manipulations  necessary  to  prepare  the  incense  for  formal  offering,  in 
all  likelihood  did  not  necessitate  the  employment  of  special  apparatus, 
but  was  performed  with  domestic  utensils,  such  as  the  nictate  and 
mortar,  cooking  vessels  or  comal,  the  pellets  formed  with  the  hands 
like  any  plastic  substance.     The  industry  in  the  ancient  days  also 

1  Sahagun,  work  cited,  p.  7:52. 

upon  the  Ethnography  of  Mexico.     Davenport    Academy  of  Science,  vol.  9,  Davenport,  Iowa, 

3  Bulletin  2s,  Bureau  of  Ajnei  lean  El  L§04,  ]  p.  146  147. 

«  llnndbookof  Amriii  ;n  Bulletin 30,  Buri  tuof  American  Ethnology,  Washington,  1907-1910. 


no.  1887.    CEN8ERS  AND  INCENSE  OF  MIDDLE  AMERICA— HOUGH.   135 

undoubtedly  required  the  services  of  many  persons  from  the  sources 
through  commerce  to  the  consumers,  who  were  the  families  (clans) 
and  the  priesthood  attendant  on  the  teocallis. 

In  the  caves  of  southern  Arizona  there  have  never  been  found  defi- 
nite masses  of  resin  or  anything  which  might  be  called  incense  out- 
side of  the  herbs  contained  in  sacred  cigarettes.  Nevertheless,  there 
are  often  attached  to  offerings  resinous  substances  which  have  an 
odor  resembling  that  of  copal. 

CUSTOMS  CONNECTED  WITH  THE  USE  OF  INCENSE. 

Some  of  the  numerous  customs  connected  with  the  use  of  incense 
are  collated  and  introduced  here.  These  have  a  bearing  on  the 
beliefs  under  whose  sway  the  incense  cult  came  to  be  practiced  and 
which  have  an  explanation  far  from  simple,  depending  largely  on  the 
plane  of  philosophy  reached,  and  modified  by  local  and  individual 
habits  of  thought  and  traditions. 

Sahagun  tells  us  that  there  were  persons  whose  office  was  to  provide 
copal,  incense  plant,  censers,  torches,  and  wood  for  the  temple  serv- 
ice,1 and  speaks  of  the  Tlacolquacuilli,  who  were  the  guard  of  the 
temple  Mecatlan.  "They  were  clothed  in  the  manner  we  have  de- 
scribed for  the  priests — that  is  to  say,  a  jacket  unxicolli,  and  carried 
a  calabash  full  of  tobacco,  picietl"  (p.  192).  Further,  "the  chief 
priest,  Mexicatl  teohuatzin,  'Mexican  master  of  the  gods,'  was 
elected  by  the  two  great  priests  and  had  charge  of  the  hierarchy. 
His  costume  was  a  jacket  of  cloth,  a  censer  of  the  form  of  which  they 
made  use,  and  a  pouch  rilled  with  copal  for  incensing."2  And  fur- 
ther: "The  chief  priests  and  ministers  of  the  temple  were  charged  not 
to  allow  the  fire  in  the  court  go  out  and  to  wake  up  those  who  had  the 
mission  of  sounding  the  hours  or  those  who  should  burn  incense  and 
make  offerings  before  the  idols.3 

During  the  ceremony  of  incensing  the  god  Huitzilopochtli  each 
priest  placed  coals  and  chapopopotli 4  incense  in  his  ilemaitl  and 
wafted  the  disagreeable  odor  toward  the  idol.  The  ashes  were  then 
emptied  from  the  censers  into  an  immense  brazier  called  the  ilexictli, 
or  fire  navel.5 

Aztec  monarchs  were  annointed,  and  during  this  ceremony  burned 
incense  to  the  god  Huitzilopochtli.     "A  censer  containing  live  coals 

1  Work  cited,  pp.  190-193. 

2  Sahagun,  work  cited,  p.  189;  Chavero,  Mexico,  p.  635,  figures  a  priest  burning  copal,  holding  the  tlemaitl 
in  the  right  hand  and  a  bag  in  the  left. 

s  Work  cited,  p.  187;  sea  shells,  cornets,  and  trumpets  were  used  to  sound  time.    Work  cited,  p.  189. 

*  "  Chapopotli  is  a  bitumen  which  resembles  the  pitch  of  Castile  when  it  is  friable.  It  is  washed  up  on  the 
beach,  usually  at  high  tide  and  is  gathered  by  the  river  peoples.  It  is  odorous  and  is  much  liked  by  women. 
When  thrown  on  the  fire  its  odor  spreads  widely.  It  is  mixed  with  the  mass  which  they  are  in  the  habit 
of  putting  in  the  odoriferant  chalumeaux.  They  mix  tzictli  (chicle)  with  the  copal,  or  incense  of  the  coun- 
try and  with  the  odorous  resin,  and  they  obtain  thus  good  perfume."  (Sahagun,  p.  630.)  See  also  Torque- 
mada  Monarchia,  vol.  11,  p.  266. 

»  Bancroft,  Native  Races,  vol.  2,  pp.  322-323. 


136  PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE    XATIOXAL  MUSEUM.  vol.42. 


was  put  in  his  right  hand,  and  into  his  left  a  bag  of  copal,  and  thus 
accoutred  and  provided,  he  proceeds  to  incense  the  god  Huitzilop- 
ochtli."1 

In  the  feast  of  Tezcatlipoca  priests  incensed  the  idol,  praying  that 
their  prayers  might  rise  to  heaven  as  the  smoke  of  the  burning  copal.2 

Incense  played  an  important  part  in  marriage  ceremonies,  and  the 
contracting  parties  as  well  as  the  household  gods  were  perfumed  from 
the  censers.3 

The  Mexicans  gave  themselves  up  to  a  certain  superstition  to  cure  sick  or  sickly 
infants.  They  attached  to  their  necks  a  ball  of  copal  by  means  of  a  soft  cord  of  cotton, 
and  they  made  the  same  for  the  wrists  and  ankles.  Astrologers  did  this  under  a  pro- 
pitious sign  and  designated  the  number  of  days  that  they  should  be  borne.  They 
attended  to  detaching  them,  and  they  went  at  once  to  burn  them  all  in  the  capulco. 
They  repeated  this  four  times  for  each  treatment  of  the  child.4 

Incense  was  burned  to  the  cardinal  points  at  the  feast  of  the  mer- 
chants.5 

In  respect  to  verification  the  Mexican  custom  was  similar  to  that 
of  the  Iroquois.     Sahagun  says : 

He  touched  his  hand  to  the  earth  and  licked  the  dust  that  attached  to  it.  He  threw 
then  copal  on  the  fire,  because  that  is  another  way  to  make  oath  to  say  the  truth.6 

Further  he  says: 

The  judges  did  the  same  before  they  performed  any  act  of  their  ministry.  Before 
ceasing  their  work,  they  threw  copal  on  the  fire  to  reverence  their  gods  and  asked  their 
aid.  The  singers  of  areytos,  before  commencing  to  sing,  burned  likewise  copal  in 
honor  of  their  gods  and  asked  their  protection.7 

They  offered  morsels  of  what  they  had  taken  to  eat  to  the  fire.  The  custom  was 
called  "act  of  throwing."  They  also  did  not  drink  pulque  until  a  small  quantity  was 
placed  in  a  pot  near  the  fire  as  an  offering.  Later  they  threw  it  out  in  four  different 
places  around  the  fire.7 

These  Indians  reverenced  greatly  and  honored  with  sacrifices  the  Gemini,  which  are 
found  near  the  Pleiades,  in  the  constellation  of  the  Bull.  They  employed  for  that 
different  ceremonies  at  the  time  when  that  constellation  appeared  newly  toward  the 
east,  after  the  feast  of  the  sun.  They  said  after  they  had  offered  incense:  "  Yoaltecutli, 
Yacaniztli  is  arisen;  what  will  happen  this  night?  Will  the  influences  be  prosperous 
or  adverse?  "  They  offered  incense  three  times,  without  doubt  because  the  constella- 
tion is  composed  of  three  stars.  These  offerings  took  place  at  the  first  hour  of  night,  at 
3  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  at  the  first  glimmer  of  the  dawn.  They  called  these  stars 
' '  Mamalhuaztli."  If  they  applied  the  same  word  to  the  sticks  which  served  to  produce 
fire,  it  is  because  these  Indians  found  in  these  sticks  of  wood  some  resemblance  with 
the  three  stars  and  with  what  they  saw  of  the  origin  of  the  process.  There  obtained 
also  among  the  young  men  the  custom  of  making  burns  on  the  wrist  in  honor  of  that 

1  Bancroft,  Native  Races,  vol.  2,  p.  145.  after  Sahagun. 

s  Idem,  p.  318. 

3  Idem,  pp.  256-260. 

«  Sahagun,  work  cited,  p.  188. 

6  Bancroft,  Native  Races,  vol.  2,  p.  393. 

•  Sahagun,  work  cited,  p.  24. 

'  Idem,  p.  184. 


no.  1S87.    CENSERS  AND  INCENSE  OF  MIDDLE  AMERICA— HOUGH.    137 

constellation.  They  said  that  one  who  did  not  bear  these  marks  at  the  hour  of  death 
would  live  in  hell  for  the  production  of  fire  because  they  would  light  it  over  his  wrist  by 
the  same  process  that  they  employ  to  produce  it  by  means  of  morsels  of  wood.1 

The  Pipiles  burned  incense  at  the  four  corners  of  a  field  before 
weeding.2 

The  Mayas  and  Mexicans  burned  incense  over  the  grave  of  the  dead.3 

A  curious  instance  of  substitution  in  which  copal  plays  a  part  has 
been  recorded  of  the  Mayas,  who  during  the  feast  of  the  month  of  Mac 
burnt  the  hearts  of  various  animals,  and  if  real  hearts  could  not  be 
procured,  imitations  were  formed  of  copal  and  sacrificed  on  the  fire.4 

Another  singular  custom  of  the  Mayas  is  referred  to  by  Bancroft : 

Respecting  their  ceremonies  before  giving  battle  we  only  know  that  on  one  occasion 
in  Yucatan  they  brought  a  brazier  of  burning  perfume  which  they  placed  before  the 
Spanish  forces,  with  the  intimation  that  an  attack  would  be  made  as  soon  as  the  fire 
went  out.5 

1  Sahagun,  work  cited,  p.  482. 

2  Bancroft,  Native  Races,  vol.  2,  p.  720. 
s  Idem,  p.  799. 

<  Idem,  p.  692. 
6  Idem,  p.  746. 


U.  S.   NATIONAL   MUSEUM 


PROCEEDINGS,   VOL.  42     PL.  3 


Stone  Braziers  from  Mexico  and  Central  America. 

For  descriptions  of  figures  see  pages  112,  113. 


U.   S.    NATIONAL  MUSEUM 


PROCEEDINGS,   VOL.  42     PL.  4 


Stone  Braziers  from  Mexico  and  Central  America. 

For  descriptions  of  figures  see  pages  113,  114. 


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PROCEEDINGS,   VOL.  42     PL.  6 


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PROCEEDINGS,   VOL.   42     PL.    10 


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PROCEEDINGS,   VOL.  42     PL.   12 


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For  descriptions  of  figures  see  pages  122,  124. 


U.  S.   NATIONAL   MUSEUM 


PROCEEDINGS,   VOL.  42     PL.   13 


Incense  Tubes  from  New  Mexico. 

For  descriptions  of  figures  see  page  126. 


U.   S.    NATIONAL   MUSEUM 


PROCEEDINGS,  VOL.  42     PL.   14 


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Tubular  Pipes  from  Arizona  and  New  Mexico. 

For  descriptions  of  figures  see  pages  127,  128,  and  129. 


